**Chapter 356: Bothawui Burning**
Admiral Wullf Yularen stood on the bridge of his flagship Venator, *Resolute*, hands clasped behind his back as green turbolaser fire lit the void above Bothawui. The Republic task force—twenty-four Venator-class Star Destroyers—had dropped out of hyperspace in perfect formation and immediately engaged the Confederate screening fleet.
"Concentrate fire on the Munificents!" Yularen ordered, voice steady. "Do not let them establish orbital bombardment positions over the capital."
The Venators answered with rolling broadsides. Over fifty Munificent-class frigates tried to hold the line, their long, elegant hulls bristling with turbolasers. One by one they died—shields flaring white, then collapsing as Republic heavy batteries punched through armor and ignited reactors. Debris clouds expanded in silent blooms, scattering twisted metal and frozen droid crew across the planet's upper atmosphere. Yularen's fleet paid a price—three Venators took heavy damage and fell back—but the Confederate orbital screen shattered within the first hour.
On the surface, however, the battle was far from decided.
Scattering debris with a Force push, Anakin Skywalker burst out onto the wide boulevard of Drev'starn, the Bothan capital. Directly ahead towered three fifteen-meter-tall Octuptarra Magna-Three droids. Their spherical heads rotated continuously and chaotically, sensor arrays sweeping for targets far ahead where the Republic defensive line still held.
Anakin darted toward the nearest one. His lightsaber flashed in sharp, precise arcs, severing a thick support leg in two places. The giant walker listed, then toppled with a ground-shaking crash. The other two immediately pivoted, their heavy repeating blasters opening fire. A dozen DSD-1 dwarf spider droids scuttled forward to support them. Behind the spiders floated AAT hovertanks, their turrets beginning to swing toward the lone Jedi. Farther back, endless ranks of B-1 and B-2 battle droids continued their mindless advance, oblivious to the new threat in their flank.
Rex sprang into action from the alley mouth. He leaned out and fired two proton missiles in rapid succession. Both struck the lead AATs dead-center, turning them into expanding fireballs that showered the street with molten debris.
Anakin dispatched the second Octuptarra with a leaping slash that carved through its central reactor housing. As he prepared to engage the third, two droidekas rolled out of the smoke. They braked sharply, unfolded into combat stance, activated their shields, and opened rapid fire.
Anakin jumped backward, putting distance between himself and the destroyers. He had learned the rule well: the farther you stayed from those "toys," the better.
The next moment a heavy energy blast screamed past his left ear and slammed into the first droideka, shattering its shield and vaporizing the droid in a single catastrophic explosion. The second droideka lasted only a heartbeat longer before another powerful beam took it apart.
"Etain!" Anakin shouted, already charging the last tri-droid. "You almost shot me!"
"Excuse me, Master!" Another heavy charge exploded somewhere behind Skywalker, probably in the middle of an advancing column of battle droids.
"Don't do that again!" Anakin swung his lightsaber in a wide arc, sending the final Octuptarra crashing down directly onto a cluster of spider droids. The three fallen walkers created an instant barricade of twisted metal and sparking legs that blocked the entire street.
Rex sprinted up, tossed a pair of thermal detonators over the barricade, then drew his twin DC-17 pistols. "Let's go, General!"
"Don't do what?" Etain's voice crackled over the comm, her weapon's cooling system hissing audibly in the background. "Don't save you?"
"Everything was under control," Anakin replied as he dived into the next alley after Rex.
"Of course it was," the girl quipped dryly. A faint clank indicated she had just swapped the power cell on her monstrous rifle.
Anakin didn't exactly disapprove of his Padawan's fighting style… but she was overly fond of that weapon. The LJ-50 heavy repeater, originally designed for Trandoshans by Arakyd, had undergone extensive modernization in the Legion's technical workshops. New barrel, advanced optics, and reinforced power systems now allowed it to punch through light armor at half a kilometer. The heavy projectiles were deliberately destabilized on impact, turning every hit into a sizable explosion capable of destroying a tank or shredding an entire squad of infantry.
The only downside was its size—the rifle stood taller than Etain herself—and the sheer weight of its power cells. But the effect was undeniable.
Another thing was that Anakin often had to rely on his lightsaber. There were simply more droids than energy in the batteries or gas in the cartridges.
"Ee-e-e-ha!" Scorch's wild scream cut across the comm channel.
"What happened?" Anakin demanded.
"Sir! You won't believe it! We just received reinforcements! The advance troops have already deployed!"
Anakin skidded to a halt at the next intersection and looked skyward. Bright streaks of atmospheric entry burned across the sky as drop pods and heavy landing craft punched through the clouds. Republic gunships—LAAT/i and LAAT/s variants—screamed overhead in tight formation, their wingtip lasers stitching the ground ahead of the advancing droid columns.
From the largest landing zone near the capital's outer defenses poured fresh clone troopers in pristine white armor, supported by AT-TE walkers and the new repulsor tanks Dagon's auxiliary forces had begun fielding. Among them marched companies of Antarian Rangers and even a detachment of Wookiee warriors roaring their battle cries.
Etain lowered her rifle slightly, a fierce grin visible even through her helmet. "Looks like the cavalry finally arrived."
Rex slapped a fresh magazine into his pistol. "About time. Let's push these clankers back to the spaceport."
Anakin ignited his lightsaber again, blue blade humming with renewed energy. Above them, Admiral Yularen's Venators continued to sweep the orbital debris field clean, while on the ground the reinforced Republic lines began to roll forward.
Bothawui would not fall today.
The Battle of Bothawui had entered its decisive phase—and for the first time since the Separatist landing, the tide was turning in the Republic's favor.