Chapter 2- The Battle of Tibrin

10 years later

Zora set in a criss-cross meditative position in his room aboard the Republic Cruiser. As much as he was trying to focus, it was proving difficult with the knowledge that he was moving in space. He continued to breathe until he heard the door behind him open up. He turned around and saw a clone, decked in white armor with yellow paint. His visor was outlined with yellow markings, the tip ontop of the helmet also was colored yellow, and each arm had a yellow stripe on it.

"Commander Blackstar, your presence is request on the bridge by General Kenobi," the clone said as he stood at attention.

"Thank you, uh," Zora said as he got up. It had only been a short while since the introduction of the clone army, and Zora found himself in an odd predicament. While Zora respected the clones courage and discipline, he found that remembering their names was incredibly difficult.

The clone seemed to sense this and took off his helmet. He revealed a face that Zora had seen many a times, though the Mohawk was a little more unique. "My name is CT-8942, sir," the clone said, a little. "But if you wish, you can call me Ajax."

That's when Zora remembered that this was Lt. Ajax, the clone that was assigned to be his second-in-command. From the first day that Zora met him, he felt that the clone had always felt a little miffed to be taking orders from someone that was younger than him. Zora wanted to address this, but the clone always seemed extremely intimidating.

"Ugh, thank you Ajax, let's not keep Master Kenobi waiting," Zora said as he walked past the clone and out of the room. Ajax swiftly turned around and followed Zora down the corridor.

On the way there, Zora looked at his attire. At sixteen years old now, he stood much taller around six feet. His hair, like most male human padawans, was cut short into a flat top, minus the braid attached to the back of his head. His robes were beige and were mixed together with slightly armor attachments to his chest and arms. He subconsciously patted the lightsaber attached to his left hip, making sure he hadn't forgotten it like last time.

The two made their way to the bridge where they were greeted by Master Kenobi, Master Skywalker, Commander Cody and Captain Rex, all hovering around the main monitor at the center of the bridge. While the others were preoccupied, Rex noticed Zora and Ajax.

"Good to see you got the young one up from his nap, Ajax," Rex said, a sense of bemusement in his voice.

Ajax nodded, but grumbled under his breath and leaned against one of the panels. Ever since being paired off together, Ajax did little to hide his frustration with being paired with the younger Zora. While some would get down from this, Zora had high hopes that today would he would prove himself to his second-in-command. Why Zora was thinking this, he felt Obi-wan tap his shoulder.

"Zora, are you alright?" Obi-wan asked. "You understand the plan, yes?"

"Uh, yes master I understand," Zora said, trying to act confident. "But just in case, could you repeat it?"

Ajax scoffed at Zora while Anakin began to laugh. Zora looked at the other Jedi who said, "It's pretty simple, our mission is only to reinforce and help defend the Ishi Tib from the droids."

"Oh, okay," Zora responded. A clone, dressed in naval gear suddenly ran towards the group, a distressed look on his face. He looked to Master Kenobi and said, "General, we received word from the Ishi Tib, the droids have begun their attack."

Before Kenobi could reply, Anakin had already gone to work. Looking over to Rex, Anakin said, "Rex let's mount up, we need to the gunships ready to depart asap."

"Anakin, we can't just rush down on the planet," Obi-Wan said trying to calm his former padawan down. "We have no idea of what we are going into, we could do more harm than good down there if we don't have a plan."

"Master, if we don't go there now, the Ishi Tib won't be there for us to help them," Anakin replied. "Master I must admit that I agree with Master Skywalker, we came here to help the Ishi Tib and they need our help now," Zora added.

Obi-Wan sighed as he knew there was no stopping Anakin, and if Zora was going to help, then he really had no choice. Sighing, Obi-Wan looked at clone in naval gear and said, "Inform the Ishi Tib commander that we will coming to their aid immediately."

In the hangar, Zora's unit was quickly gathering their equipment for the upcoming battle and getting their gunship. As he walked through the busy hangar, Zora noticed Ajax sitting on a crate, giving a last minute inspection of his blaster rifle. The clone seemed extremely focused on his blaster rifle, intent on ensuring it was spotless.

"Does cleaning the blaster make it fire better?" Zora said.

"Doesn't matter if it does or it doesn't," Ajax replied, not even looking up from his weapon. "A soldier must keep his weapon clean whenever they get the chance."

Ajax finishes cleaning the blaster and moves towards the gunship, Zora quickly following him. They were soon surrounded by the rest of the unit and the doors on the gunship closed, sealing them the air inside. Zora could feel the ship begin to buzz, and he knew that they were on their way out of the battle cruiser. Through the ride, Zora felt himself becoming tense and almost felt himself shaking, fearing at what was to come. It was only when he felt a punch in the shoulder that he felt the shaking stop. He looked over to see another clone, who liked to be called Dax, standing to his right.

"Feelin' a little jittery sir?" the Dax chuckled. "Ain't no reason to be nervous, we'll be knocking those clankers back in a matter of no time, ain't that right lieutenant?"

Zora hoped that Ajax would be the least bit comforting. However, without even missing a beat, the stoic clone said, "There are no promises in on the battlefield, whatever happens will happen."

Zora wanted to say something along the lines of, well thanks for the help Ajax, that makes me feel so much better. However, he saw the ports on the door of gunship open up, revealing that they had now entered the atmosphere of Tibrion. A barrage of anti-aircraft fire blasted through the air, some coming dangerously close to the gunship, but none actually hitting the ship. Unfortunatley, another gunship in the distance wasn't as lucky as an anti-aircraft round connected with the ship, blowing the ship into pieces.

Thankfully, Zora's gunship landed on the ground. The doors opened up and Zora hurriedly made his way out of the ship, lest he be run over by his clones. Round after Round of laser fire whizzed by him on the left, and with the clones returning fire. Igniting his lightsaber, which glowed bright yellow, Zora dashed to catch up with his men.

When he met up with them, the clones were pinned down behind some rocks as the droids fired from a higher position on a hill. The droids spotted Zora and began to unleash a fury laser fire down on him, giving Zora only a split second to ignite his lightsaber and block them.

As much as Zora felt his fear rising, he remembered that he was trained for this and knew he had to focus. Inhaling, he deflected round after round that came towards him. Finally he was able to redirect one of them back to the droid's position, killing the droids. Zora felt a wave of relief was over him as his men cheered. Dax came over and patted him on the back, but Ajax remained stoic.

"Enough acting like fools, get in line" Ajax barked. "We need to regroup with the rest of the battalion."

As much as he wanted to relish in his success, Zora knew that Ajax was right, and he ordered his men to push forward. As they climbed over the hill they were met by a firefight between droids and a mixture of Ishi Tib and clones. Zora noticed in the lead were Obi-Wan and Anakin who were busy deflecting laser blasts.

"Looks like they need some help, sir" Dax said. "What should we do?"

Zora thought for a second trying to formulate a plan. He could regroup with Master Kenobi and Skywalker and hold the line or he and his men could crash the unit and hopefully end this battle quickly. The longer he thought, the more he liked the idea of being the reason that they won the battle. With that, Zora made his decision.

"Lt. Ajax, round up the men," Zora ordered. "We're going to storm the droid's position."

"Sir, I would strongly advise that we regroup with General's Kenobi and Skywalker," Ajax advised, and for a moment Zora second thought himself.

"Forget that sir, we're ready to move on the position when you give the order," Dax said from behind. There was a resounding cry of approval from the other men.

"It's settled then, we move for the droids," Zora said. And with that, he led his men to the droids in a daring charge. The droids were taken by surprise, and barley had time to raise their weapons as Zora's unit crashed into their trench. The first wave of clankers were easy, mowed down by laser fire or slashed up by Zora's yellow blade. The droids began to regroup, but Zora and his me were pushing them back.

Zora noticed that Dax had moved beside him on his right and was mowing down battle droids left and right. "Didn't I tell you sir," He said with a chuckle in his tone. "We've got these tinnies running scared."

Zora didn't know if droids actually got scared, but he had to admit that Dax was right. Things were going well and Zora felt that this battle was drawing to its near. Suddenly, however, Zora felt something wash over him that chilled his blood. Without warning he heard a blaster sound come from the right and his stomach tightened. Looking over to his right, he now saw Dax standing there frozen, with a hole from a laser blast on his right chest.

Dropping to his knees, Dax fell down in a lifeless heap. Zora wanted to cry out, but the chilling senation overtook him.

Looking to his right he saw numerous super battle droids, large enough to be a battalion walking towards him. Each droid unleashed a barrage on his unit, and Zora quickly tried to block the blasts. He couldn't see them, but he could hear the screams from his men, how many of them had been hit he was unaware.

The rounds were coming too quick for Zora and try as he might, he was not able to deflect them all. While most only whizzed past him, a lucky round whirled through his left thigh, causing Zora to cry out in an extreme pain. His leg felt stiff and the only sensation that he could feel was a warm liquid running down his leg, no doubt his blood. It was only a moment later that he felt another round pass through his right shoulder.

Zora wanted to say something about how Obi-wan would disappointed in him for being careless, or something witty like Anakin would say. However, the only thing he could think of was the pain as he felt his legs become weak. Without warning, his legs gave out on him, causing him to fall hard on his back.

As he saw a number of battle droids close in on him, Zora was almost thankful that he was beginning to black out, so that he would not witness his last moments. The last thing he saw was the droids raising their blasters….

Zora felt sore in places he never knew he even had, if that was even physically possible. He struggled to open his eyes, expecting to wake up back on the field about to become another casualty in this war. But when he opened his eyes, he was surprised to see that he not on the field, but in fact a medical room back on the cruiser.

So many questions were going through his head that it made him nauseous, or maybe that was the pain killers they gave him. He tried to get up, but was stopped when a hand was placed on his shoulder. He turned his head to see Master Kenobi sitting on a chair next to him.

"You are still too weak to get up my young padawan," Kenobi said in a comforting voice. "You took a couple good shots back there, you're lucky we got to you in time."

"What happened, I-I thought the droids…" Zora tried to say, but he still felt weak at the moment.

"What you did was reckless young one, and it not only put your life in danger, but your entire unit," Kenobi said, somehow making Zora feel even more weak than he thought was possible. "But I will say that you were able to help to buy us enough time to regroup and drive the droids off the planet."

Zora felt a little bit of pride at helping, but remembered that he nearly died because of it. "I promise to follow your orders next time Master, and thank you for saving my life."

"I'm glad you understand Zora, but unfortunately it was neither I nor Anakin who saved you," Obi-wan said as he got up from his chair and made his way out of the medical room. "Now rest, you can thank the person who saved you later."

As Obi-wan left the room, Zora felt his eyes grow heavy. He moved to a more comfortable position and tried to drift off to sleep. Just when it seemed like he was finally becoming relaxed, he heard a noise.

"You feeling better kid?"

Zora turned over to Ajax, without his helmet, leaning against the doorway. His armor was scraped and dented, with the yellow markings being almost faded. Despite looking like he had just gone toe-to-toe with a Rancor, he still had that calm and cool demeanor.

"Ajax, you're alive," Zora found his voice suddenly reappearing. "Please tell me the others made it."

"We lost a lot of good men today," Ajax said as he walked into the room and Zora could never have felt worse. "Thankfully General's Kenobi and Skywalker made it just in time before we lost the whole unit."

Zora knew he was trying to make him feel better, but there was still a sinking feeling in his gut. "You were right, I'm not built for this," Zora said. "I have no business being on a battlefield, let alone leading a command."

For a second, Ajax said nothing and a strong silence pierced the room. Finally Ajax said, "It's just like I said, a battlefield is unpredictable and there are no promises. You made a mistake, and now you know better. You may not believe in yourself, but I do sir. That's why I fought those droids before they shot you."

Ajax turned around and began walking out of the room. Zora said nothing, but only watched as the clone left. As he made it to the door, Ajax turned around and said, "Get some rest sir, we'll need you back on the bridge soon."

He then left, and finally Zora allowed himself to rest as he drifted off to sleep.