Hey everyone! I'm really sorry for the late update, but as an apology this chapter is longer than normal. Enjoy!
I do not own Star Wars or anything that you recognize.
Obi-Wan, crouched on the limb of a tree, glanced over at Anakin in a silent request for confirmation of his readiness. After receiving a quick nod, he gestured to Ahsoka, who drew her lightsaber and quickly cut the lowest branches of the tree, climbing as she did so to free over a dozen.
As soon as each branch was cut, Obi-Wan and Anakin caught it with the Force, straining to hold each heavy limb in the exact same position it had been in prior to meeting Ahsoka's lightsaber so that to a quick glance nothing was different about the tree.
Ediir stood in the clearing below, lightsaber drawn and facing the direction in which six voxyn and twenty warriors prowled. The Yuuzhan Vong had stepped up the size of their search parties after the first few had gone missing, prompting the Jedi to try new tactics.
Reaching out to the Force, Ediir cast his mind in the area surrounding them, touching the minds of the voxyn already made tense by Obi-Wan and Anakin's Force use. Feeling his touch on their minds, and able to trace it even more easily than Anakin and Obi-Wan's efforts, he felt their predatory instincts kick in as they started moving rapidly towards him.
His grip on his lightsaber slightly sweaty from pain and nervousness, Ediir watched the voxyn and their handlers appear a hundred metres off through the trees. Catching sight of a lone, injured Jedi backing slowly away, they raced towards him, screaming loud battle cries in their guttural language.
Ediir ignited his lightsaber, letting his hand tremble slightly. As more and more warriors appeared, he allowed a slightly panicked expression to cross his face – at this point it wasn't hard to feign – and started backing away even more rapidly.
The voxyn reached him several seconds before their handlers. Ediir dodged their attacks, giving the handlers a chance to catch up and foolishly cluster around him – and then drew on the Force for an enormous leap, catching onto some handholds on the side of a tree that Ahsoka had carved earlier and desperately clinging as several tons of branches fell past him and straight onto the group of Yuuzhan Vong and voxyn.
He let himself fall to the ground as Obi-Wan, Anakin and Ahsoka dropped to join him, Obi-Wan heading over to the pile of branches and giving a mercy cut to a voxyn whose rear half had been crushed by the branches. After checking to make sure none of the others were still alive, Obi-Wan walked back over to the group, offering a compliment to Ediir on his perfect setup of the trap.
Even as he spoke the Jedi started briskly walking once more, seeking to get well away from the scene before any more Vong arrived. After putting a kilometre between them and the dead Yuuzhan Vong, they climbed another tree for a quick rest.
"They'll probably stop sending out patrols pretty soon," Obi-Wan commented quietly to Anakin. "Any ideas on what to do then?"
"We have significantly whittled down their numbers," Anakin replied in a voice just as quiet. "I think if we might stand a chance at taking down the base now if we attack. Best to do it sooner rather than later anyway, before reinforcements arrive."
Obi-Wan nodded in agreement, as the two began devising their strategy.
They had taken down about a hundred warriors and several dozen voxyn through their guerilla tactics, whittling the Yuuzhan Vong numbers down to a force that was still greatly numerically superior but was also manageable with some sneaky tactics. The base itself was in a large, area the Yuuzhan Vong had cleared of trees and bushes, and consisted of a large organic…building, for lack of a better word, several smaller buildings, and an area that held several dozen ships of various sizes. The Jedi, now returning to their spot in a tree about a kilometre away, could faintly see through the branches to where a number of Yuuzhan Vong and voxyn scuttled around the base.
Now they took the opportunity to look through the stack of weaponry formerly wielded by their foes. The amphistaffs had refused to cooperate, attacking the Jedi whenever they approached, so they had none of them.
They still possessed an impressive arsenal. They had numerous bandoliers of the thud bugs as well as dozens of unreleased razor bugs. Kept well apart from the others were several bandoliers of a third type of bug, one that resembled the thud bugs closely but exploded violently when they struck a target. They had not been used against the Jedi despite the warriors possessing them, which suggested to Obi-Wan that the Yuuzhan Vong wanted at least one of them alive, as the explosion was definitely enough to kill. Indeed, the Jedi had only realized their purpose when Anakin had accidentally released one, blasting a good chunk out of a nearby tree. The Jedi had dubbed them blast bugs.
They also possessed several organic flasks of a jelly-like substance, dubbed firejelly, that caught fire very easily. The Jedi planned to use this substance, combined with the blast bugs, to distract and separate the warriors.
Now they used threads from their damaged outer tunics to securely tie the flasks to rocks picked up off the ground. The rocks would allow them to use the Force to throw the flasks that they otherwise could not carry. Obi-Wan cautiously did the same with a dozen of the blast bugs.
Having completed their task, the Jedi each took their share of the captured weaponry and went to their assigned points surrounding the base, creeping through the trees so as not to be seen. Once in place, each waited for the sun to set. The battle had taken place the previous morning, and none of the Jedi had slept since; they were hoping that this battle would not sap their remaining strength too dramatically.
They were hoping, once the base had been sufficiently decimated, to capture one of the ships large enough to hold them all, stealthily or otherwise, and figure out its workings. The Republic and the Jedi had recorded the Yuuzhan Vong and their communication creatures whenever possible, sending the recordings to hundreds of translation droids in the hopes of understanding the language. Though the results were incomplete at best, the Republic now had a basic knowledge of the language, which every Jedi, particularly Obi-Wan and Anakin, had worked hard to learn. They now hoped to use that knowledge somehow to make a ship work and escape.
Night fell, and the Jedi still waited for the perfect moment. Using a small pair of electrobinoculars, Obi-Wan scanned the base using their night function. Finding a good moment, he reached out a feather-light touch through the Force to the others, sending a quick pulse of Now!
From four different directions in the surrounding forest dozens of flasks flew nearly invisibly into the buildings and surrounding area, each bursting on contact. Voxyn leapt to their feet all around the base, snarling as they detected Force use – just as the flasks were followed by blast bugs, setting the jelly released by the flasks on fire. Flames sprang up throughout the camp, growing as they fed on jelly and the smaller plant life, and surprising the force of warriors that ran out of the main compound in response to the calls of the guards.
The chaos was soon joined by two lightsabers as Obi-Wan and Anakin sprang from their trees and raced towards each other to face the warriors as a team, throwing thud and razor bugs and using the Force to hurl boulders so as to make the battlefield as confusing as possible. Ahsoka and Ediir also met up, sneaking around to the rear of the base and engaging the guards posted there.
Obi-Wan ducked as a large rock flew over his head, courtesy of Anakin, and slammed into a nearby warrior. He followed up on Anakin's attack, taking down the warrior and another next to him in what appeared to be a single move, before throwing a rock of his own into a voxyn advancing on Anakin, following the rock up with a thud bug that temporarily stunned the voxyn and allowed Anakin to finish it off. The two quickly separated, running in unpredictable patterns before meeting up again, not allowing themselves to stay in one place for more than a few attacks. Together they carved a path through the Yuuzhan Vong forces, as Ahsoka and Ediir did the same to a smaller group of warriors and voxyn on the other side of the base. Each Jedi was careful not to let more than one warrior or voxyn approach them at a time – the skills of their opponents and the exhaustion of the Jedi meant that they couldn't afford to face too many enemies at once.
Ahsoka and Ediir, finishing off the group of half a dozen warriors that had been guarding the rear of the base, crept stealthily around to where they could see the other Jedi, throwing carefully aimed firejelly, blast bugs, and thud bugs into the warriors, allowing Obi-Wan and Anakin to finish off the warriors that survived the assault of the two less experienced Jedi. Obi-Wan and Anakin continued to fight, carefully herding the warriors towards a small section of the base where Obi-Wan had used his most delicate command of the Force to set Anakin's trap.
The Jedi fought on, collecting minor wounds as they began turning the tide against the Yuuzhan Vong.
Silver, sitting in the pilot's seat, carefully guided the stealth ship towards the planet. The instruments clearly showed where the Republic's battle against the Yuuzhan Vong had taken place, as well as an area where there seemed to be another one now. Silver approached on that side of the planet, taking care to keep all the functions not necessary for stealth, life support or power at a minimum. He could feel the tension of his brothers behind him, aware of the risk of they were detected by the base.
Abruptly Silver's instruments registered an anomaly, an instant before a group of Yuuzhan Vong ships appeared out of hyperspace. Allowing a quick Mandalorian curse to cross his lips, Silver cut power to everything except stealth systems, allowing the ship to float through space and hoping desperately that they wouldn't be spotted.
The warrior stood at the helm of the ship, contemplating the planet below. The commander of the base had grudgingly requested reinforcements several hours before to deal with a group of the enemy Jeedai warriors loose on the planet. Warmaster Lah had sent him, Zhat Kaan, to reinforce the base and capture the Jedi, whom the Yuuzhan Vong were eager to study.
Kaan was a commander, a crèche-mate of Supreme Commander Matik Kaan. He had proved himself in numerous battles, even taking down a Jedi on his own – a great honour. He now answered directly to, and occasionally advised, the warmaster. He was also in competition with Matik Kaan, and hoped to ascend to the other's position as soon as possible.
Capturing at least one of the Jeedai would go a long way to accomplishing that, as the Yuuzhan Vong still did not understand the powerful warriors despite their numerous informants in the Republic – willing or otherwise.
Out of the corner of his eye, Kaan saw one of his crewmembers flare his nostrils slightly in confusion. He turned towards the crewmember.
"Report."
"The dovin basals have picked up a slight anomaly, Commander, but are confused as to what it is. It does not seem to match anything they have so far detected.
Indeed? "Where is it?"
Kaan looked to the point that the crewmember indicated, his sharp gaze seeing nothing out of the ordinary. His face took on a calculating expression – far different than the equivalent on a human face – as he considered the same spot.
He turned to the communications officers, whose villips used to contact the other ships under his command. "Order all of our ships to fire on that spot on my mark."
The crewmembers relayed his order, too well-disciplined to question the order, as he turned back to gaze once more at the strange spot in space – a spot that suddenly revealed itself as a patch of darkness against the distant stars.
"Fire."
Silver saw the weapons of the Vong ships turning to point their way and cursed, throwing switches to direct power towards the engines and disengage some of the stealth systems. He knew that the enemy could now see his ship as a dark spot, but viewed escape to now be a far greater priority than keeping complete stealth – which didn't seem to have worked anyway.
He threw the ship into a quick roll as the Yuuzhan Vong fleet began to fire. Abandoning all pretense of stealth, he threw all power to the engines, racing the barrage of plasma to the surface of the planet.
Obi-Wan was aware of flashes of light far above them in the night sky, but he could not afford to divert any of his focus to determine the cause. All of his concentration lay in defending Anakin as the latter pulled off strings of his signature reckless moves, while avoiding taking damage himself. He was aware of Ediir and Ahsoka fighting in the background, following their instructions by avoiding the main group of warriors and voxyn as much as possible.
A few minutes later, a streak of hot matter flew a few hundred metres over their heads to crash about a kilometre away. Far more concerning, though, was the group of Yuuzhan Vong ships that appeared at about the same time and settled down in the landing field, one of the few areas left mostly untouched by the Jedi's attacks. Warriors streamed from the ships, turning the tide once more against the Jedi as the fresh fighters joined the fray.
Obi-Wan reached into the Force, directing Ahsoka and Ediir to retreat to the forest before they drew the attention of the new group of warriors, who were racing to engage Obi-Wan and Anakin. The two Jedi began to retreat, backing towards the forest under the sudden and relentless onslaught. Around them fires burned, filling the air with smoke and bright light, and catching on the underbrush of the forest – though the larger trees seemed thankfully to be highly resistant to the flames.
Among the group of warriors were a dozen that seemed to be especially experienced. Working with skillful strategy under the direction of their leader, a Yuuzhan Vong in striking silver-green Vonduun crab armour, they kept up a merciless onslaught against the two Jedi, assisted by the other warriors who finally had direction rather than the simple battle-rage that had driven them before, which the Jedi had sought to take advantage of.
Obi-Wan sought to stick with Anakin, moving constantly to avoid being targeted too heavily, but under the directions of the unknown Vong the warriors somehow managed to separate them. He felt himself being driven away from Anakin through the woods, and felt a sudden surge of concern, as Anakin's reckless fighting style, with its lack of a defensive component, would have difficulty protecting him against such skillful assailants. His concerns were quickly driven out of his mind, however, as the onslaught redoubled, driving him further and further away from the clearing.
Staggering with renewed exhaustion and the pain of a dozen smaller wounds on top of the wounds sustained in earlier battles, Obi-Wan felt the warriors back off just as another warrior stepped forward. Obi-Wan brought his lightsaber up in a flourish, focusing on the individual who showed an unusual grasp of tactics in fights against Jedi.
The unknown warrior offered him an aggressive smile as he brandished his amphistaff. "Greetings, Jeedai," he spoke in Basic far better than that of any warrior Obi-Wan had encountered so far. "I am Zhat Kaan, commander of the Yuuzhan Vong."
"Obi-Wan Kenobi," Obi-Wan replied. The warrior's smile broadened.
"A great honour to face such an esteemed Jeedai general," the warrior replied, surprising Obi-Wan with his apparent prior knowledge of Obi-Wan's identity – though Obi-Wan was sufficiently well-known that perhaps he should not be surprised.
The warrior lunged following his words, accompanied by several other of the more experienced Vong warriors, who Obi-Wan guessed were Kaan's personal forces. He found himself lunging and fighting desperately, his advanced knowledge of the defensive capabilities of Soresu the only reason he survived more than a few moments. Kaan and the warriors scored several hits, earning grunts from Obi-Wan, who refused to allow this to slow him down. The warriors, Obi-Wan could tell, were impressed, but it was only a matter of time before he fell…the warriors were simply too skilled, and Obi-wan too exhausted.
He fought on, fighting exhaustion and hoping that the others were in better situations than him.
Silver pulled himself out of the wreckage of his ship, grunting slightly, and turned to offer a hand to another brother.
Thanks to admirable safety restraints and their harsh training on Kamino in how to survive crashes, all of his brothers had survived with only minor wounds. Now, though, they had to get away from the wreckage before the Yuuzhan Vong arrived.
Everyone out of the ship, they did a quick check of their weaponry and supplies before trekking off quickly into the woods in the direction of the battle and fires they had glimpsed during the crash.
Zed and Scree were also convinced that they had seen several lightsabers in the battle, proving that at least a couple of the Jedi were still alive. Now Silver and his brothers just had to keep them that way.
Moving quickly through the forest, the group quickly came upon the edge of the clearing. Hearing a noise in the underbrush nearby, four of his brothers trained their blasters at the bushes while the others covered every other direction, but they quickly relaxed their aim when General Ediir Kam and Commander Ahsoka Tano appeared through the brush.
"Commander! General!" Ace acknowledged them in relief. "Where are the other two generals?"
"Somewhere else in the forest near the clearing," Ediir replied. "The Vong separated us."
Silver trained his gaze across the clearing to the forest on the opposite side, looking past the remaining warriors to see the faintest hint of a lightsaber through the trees. "There!" he hissed, and the group started to make its way through the forest around the clearing towards the fight, taking care not to be spotted by the visible warriors.
Soon they could hear the hum of the lightsaber, and a few moments later Master Kenobi, looking exhausted and wounded as he was beset by over a dozen warriors. Taking their positions quickly, the clone soldiers fired on the warriors while Ediir and Ahsoka leapt to attack, eliminating all the warriors in the space of a few minutes. Obi-Wan deactivated his lightsaber, swaying on his feet in an exhausted manner.
"Where's Master Skywalker?" Ahsoka asked quickly. Obi-Wan shrugged wearily.
"They separated us." Obi-Wan turned to regard the woods nearby, reaching out through the Force as he did so while idly rubbing a shallow slashing wound across one shoulder. "The commander of the Yuuzhan Vong was here as well. He said his name was Zhat Kaan. He left abruptly a few minutes ago, along with several warriors."
Searching the Force-bond she had with her Master as Obi-Wan spoke, Ahsoka gasped in horror. "Master Kenobi, my bond with Master Skywalker has dimmed! I think he's unconscious!"
Her heart sank as Obi-Wan nodded wearily, his expression as worried as she felt.
So like I said, sorry about the late update! I hope you enjoyed the chapter though…much more action-oriented than normal.