Chapter 4
She ran.
A sense of urgency and panic spurring her bruised injured body ever onwards.
She could not hear her men at all now, and the com that she carried yielded no response.
When she burst into the clearing where she had left her clones; her sabre at the ready, a macabre sight met her eyes. The smell of fresh blood filled the air and she had to cover her mouth as she took in what was left of her troops. Bodies and broken torn limbs lay strewn across the ground, their armour pulled from them as they had been partly eaten alive. There also lay the bodies of four of the beasts, deep scorch marks still burning on their underbellies and their eyes.
Her clones had not gone down without a fight.
Her attention was then drawn to an object in the centre of the clearing; Commander Grees helmet rocked gently on the dirt as a cool evening breeze caught at it softly. She watched it seemingly mesmerised by its presence for what seemed like the longest moments of her life, the helmet's lonely soft movements somehow significant to her. Eventually her legs carried her towards it and she bent to retrieve it. She could still feel the warmth of him radiating from inside it.
She stared at it. Her own reflection looking back at her from the mirrored visor just as it had done so such a short time before.
I am Jedi
Her thoughts and emotions suddenly flared back into chaotic life. Her anger rising within her to fill the void that her conviction usually filled. All her years of Jedi training had not prepared her for this. A single black thought crossed her mind; was this how it started? Was this how the Darkside drew you to it? For the first time in her life the Jedi within her took a respectful step back.
I am . . .
The sound of a single distant blaster shot made her head snap up.
Over there
She ran toward it despite her injuries, jumping obstacles and ducking under branches, foliage snapping at her body as she sliced her way through it. She could feel the jungle around her, watching her through the eyes of thousands of terrified animals. She drew strength from it; let it flow into her as her blood pounded through her body.
As she drew closer she could sense two more of the giant beasts ahead of her, the mind of one of them was screaming out in pain and frustration. It was close to death.
I will be your death
She was upon them just in time to see the lifeless body of a clone being thrown from the jaws of one of the creatures, his broken form smacking into the side of a boulder with a sickening noise.
She leapt.
The already injured creature made pitiful attempts to ward her off as its left side collapsed into the earth exposing its vulnerable underside. Luminara Unduli tore into it with her sabre, cutting the beasts stomach open with a ferocity that terrified even her. Some of the wound cauterized around the sabre blade but now exposed organs slid from the beast and pooled at its side as the stricken animal drew its last laboured breaths.
She heard herself cry out in satisfaction and then turned her attention to the final beast that stood against the curved base of a cliff face some way off. It had nowhere left to run except past her.
It watched her carefully with intelligent malice burning in it eyes.
She was motionless, her sabre held upright ready to attack.
But she could not.
Her entire focus and being was fixed upon the limp body of Commander Gree that was held in the beasts jaws.
She let her mind take in the scene; she could sense he was still alive but not conscious. What armour still remained on him was dripping with blood; his suit below was hanging on him in tatters.
She fixed a steady gaze on the beast; its yellow eyes burned into hers for some time before it flicked its attention to the now dead form of its pack member.
"You know what I want" She found herself speaking out aloud to this loathed creature. "Give him to me"
The beast growled and rolled its eyes as if trying to seek another way out. It shook its would be meal gently as it bellowed its frustration to the world in general, and then it dumped him unceremoniously on the ground.
Commander Gree grunted as he hit the dirt his blurred vision finding itself staring down the nose of the beast, the stench of its hot breath hitting him full in the face. He tried to lift himself up but the pain from his injuries made him collapse back to the ground again. He thought it was coming at him for the final kill but instead it nudged at him, pushing him away.
"Don't move Commander!"
"General?" he managed shakily as he twisted awkwardly where he lay taking in the vision of her through the blood and dust in his eyes. "Run . . . you must leave . . . you can still make it back to . . . the ship" each word left him gasping for breath. His hand was held tightly to his exposed side, blood seeping through his fingers.
"I am not leaving without you Commander."
He made to protest but the world suddenly drifted into blackness, the noise of the jungle growing fainter and fainter. The last thing he heard was the angry hum of a lightsabre and a shrill cry of rage and terror from his captor.
