Chapter 24

First Blood

If Jaina hadn't been ordered by Anakin's second in command, Kirk, she'd have dove in after Anakin when she saw his ship plummet. Because Anakin had said if he was somehow incapacitated Kirk would take over the air command and when they split up on the ground mission, Zekk and Kirk would be the leaders, Kirk in Anakin's stead. That was what she'd agreed on, but that didn't stop Jaina from having brief thoughts of insubordination. This was her brother she was talking about. He wasn't even twenty and already he was trying to shoulder the world by himself. Not that age had ever stopped her family. Solo or Skywalker, you tended to do the most incredibly adult things at a very young age. It was a gift and a curse. You'd lose years off your life but gain abundant amounts of experience. Jaina could not help but feel sour about this whole getup. When did Anakin up and become an adult? By rights he shouldn't have even seen Chewie die at his age. But wishes for fishes, they were at war and they had to deal with things as they came.

Jaina guided her ship to the ground next to the others. As she stepped out of her cockpit she made sure her breathing mask was securely fastened to her mouth and nose. Then she cast a glance around at Mykyr's forest floor. It was definitely dirtier and murkier than anything she'd ever laid eyes on. It smelled as foul as Dagobah, she regretted that the breathing mask didn't block out smell completely, instead it just blocked out the toxins. Zekk led the group out of the cruiser and came to join the pilots who landed.

"Where's Anakin?" Zekk asked. Jaina shrugged.

"Decided to hold off the carriers by himself and crash landed someplace." She didn't bother to keep her frustration out of her voice. Zekk nodded and went to talk to Kirk. As they talked, Kirk kept his own irritation in check, they hadn't planned on their mission commander being of commission so early in the game. But it wasn't like they had any choice at this point. Alema Rar grunted in distaste.

A crunch of twigs made everyone turn their blasters on the newcomer, only to lower them when they saw the familiar blue coloring in his partially burned flight suit. "You might want to save that for the enemy, you know." James muttered as he glared around at all the blaster muzzles pointed in his direction. When they were down, he limped over to the small group massed near Jaina's ship.

"Here, we should treat your wounds." Tekli said, and Henthor followed her. They began to check James' condition and bandage what they could. While they busied themselves, Zekk and Kirk decided on their next plan of action.

"Should we wait?" Zekk asked. Kirk shook his head.

"Anakin has to know where he's going to meet us if he took such a brash course of action." Kirk replied curtly. Zekk nodded, although he had his doubts. Apparently Jaina shared his sentiment because her next comment was a blunt statement of the fact.

"You can only hope." She muttered sarcastically and exchanged glances with Zekk, who didn't say anything, only confirmed that he agreed through their bond. Kirk then thought over the situation for a brief second.

"We're going to stick together until we get to the village, that's when Zekk will plant the time bomb in the armory. Everyone else knows what they should be doing. Follow the orders that Anakin laid out and no one should get killed."

Hypothetically speaking, Jaina and Jacen thought at the same time. Jacen ran a nervous hand through his hair, this did not go unnoticed by either his sister or Tenel Ka, who was immediately beside him.

"You should express your opinion if you have your doubts about the plan, Jacen." She pointed out. He shook his head.

"Anakin's plan isn't the problem, Tenel Ka. I just have a really bad feeling about this place in general. Not to mention Anakin himself isn't here." Jacen replied, his voice faltering on the last statement. Tenel Ka gave his hand a brief squeeze, something Jacen did not expect her to do while in public.

"We will be fine. Anakin will meet us and he shall be able to figure things out. We are not incapable of leading either. If Anakin trusts us to be able to handle the mission until he gets here, then we must trust him."

"I do trust him, Tenel Ka." Jacen affirmed. I'm just not sure I trust myself to be able to do this. Maybe I should have said something. "Never mind, let's just go." He followed everyone as they filed out. Hennathor would take the shuttle as close to the village as possible without being seen. The Blue Cruiser would have to be left behind along with the pods. It was too large and would make their presence immediately known. Aside from the fleet outside, no one knew they where they were on Mykyr and Anakin had taken care of the entire fleet almost single handedly.

The rest of the group moved in a pattern of threes, so each group could cover their comrades' backs if anything attacked. Synthor had explained that the walk to the swamp, which was the closest thing to the village, could take hours, so Zekk and Kirk were eager to get the group moving now rather than later when it became dark.

As they trudged through the mud, Jaina sensed something was close by. Though what, she wasn't sure. It wasn't Yuuzhan Vong because she could feel it in the force, but that was the strange part, there was also a piece she couldn't feel too. She turned to Zekk, his nod confirmed that he'd felt it too.

Zekk turned his head slightly to see a familiar monster crash through the trees, but before he could get any words out of his mouth, the beast had smashed into their group of marchers, bashing several members into the nearby trees.

Luke slashed the first Peace Brigade soldier to finally step onto the platform and the soldier went flying from the blow down into the trees. Luke winced. He definitely didn't want to resort to violence but he did promise that if anyone stepped on the platform, he wouldn't hold back. Luke intended to keep that promise.

The Sytars opened fire, cleanly shooting down the soldiers with the lasers. Of course they had no trouble piercing the thin armor the soldiers were wearing since the blasters were designed to kill Yuuzhan Vong, who had much thicker skin. But that didn't changed how efficiently cold it was. Luke could not help but see how many soldiers now lay dead with one blood stained burn hole in their chests or in some cases, their heads.

It was only when Luke noticed the approaching Hapan warriors that he revised his thoughts. They were not likely to go down as easily because they could dodge much better than the Peace Brigade soldiers who fought like stormtroopers, meaning their only advantage was numbers.

The Hapan warriors came swiftly through the jungle and avoided the blasts from the Sytars, all of whom then gave Luke a questioning look. Luke decided it was time to confront them directly. He nodded to Kyle and Kyp to stay while Luke and Corran went down to the ground to battle the Hapan warriors face to face.

As soon as he got down there however, there were not Hapan warriors who were waiting to fight him, but just one person, one solitary figure, or rather an armored figure in a T-shaped helmet.

"Master Skywalker, an honor it is to see you in person." The armored figure said. Luke gestured for Corran to go on, and the other Jedi understood. Luke was skilled enough to face this person alone.

"And who do I have the pleasure of meeting?" Luke replied, not lowering his lightsaber.

"If you so choose, you may call me Xillanor. I am as far as you know a nameless, faceless soldier who is now your opponent." Xillanor replied, his voice sounding clearly but still somewhat raspy through his helmet com.

"Ah." Luke raised his lightsaber to fight Xillanor who quickly drew his blaster and fired at Luke who deflected it with his blade. If Xillanor was surprised, he did not show it. Bounty Hunters rarely were, they did their research.

"You are as skilled as my records say." Xillanor said, putting his blaster into its holster. Luke stepped back, unsure why his opponent was disarming himself. Then to Luke's surprise Xillanor reached into the pack strapped onto his back, and in a swift motion ignited a blue blade. "You will be the first to know that I am not just a bounty hunter, Master Skywalker." The cool voice said, it was devoid of any emotion, even Luke was never this calm. Only a skilled force user could be this adept. Who was this Xillanor? The blue blade flickered and in a quick fluid motion the bounty hunter slashed at Luke, then moving to the side to deflect Luke's counter attack. Wordlessly the bounty hunter matched Luke in his every attempt to better Xillanor. With each new attack Xillanor seemed to grow faster and faster in his movements and they were always clean as though Xillanor's body had been born to move to the beat of Luke's force moments. Even when Luke tried Xillanor's blind spots the blue blade came up from in front and then Xillanor twisted around and slashed a hole in Luke's robes.

Knowing they would only slow him down, Luke cast his robe off, stripping down to a plain tunic and loose pants. Xillanor did not waste a moment before renewing his attack, though Luke sensed no aggression from the bounty hunter, he knew that Xillanor was driven by something. Though what Luke couldn't tell, like his face, Xillanor's entire force presence was a mystery. It had no distinct identity. That made Luke fear his own ability to best the bounty hunter.

Zekk was on his feet in seconds, he knew how to defeat this monster, he and Anakin had fought it before. The half Yuuzhan Vong half Rancor wasn't unfamiliar to Zekk, but he also didn't think it was a good thing the beast was there. After all, they were trying to be discreet and this thing was roaring loud enough for the entire forest to hear.

Anakin heard the roar from where his ship had crashed in the swamp. He was glad that it cushioned what would have been a painful impact, despite that he knew he shouldn't stay long in the swamp. His flight suit was ripped in several places and blood trickled down from his forehead, but Anakin didn't have time to worry about that. He felt his friends nearby and he could sense they weren't having fun with whatever was roaring.

He ignored the burning sensation he got from his arm, which was exposed completely because the flames in the cockpit had gone straight through the fabric. Anakin pulled on his vest that the Sytars made to help deflect some of the attacks of the Yuuzhan Vong and gripped his lightsaber as he nimbly ran through the forest as quickly as his legs could carry him.

Zekk ducked as the beast swung at him. I'm having major déjà vu here. Zekk thought as he used the force to propel himself onto the beast's back and stabbed downwards. The beast roared and reared up, throwing Zekk against a tree. Jaina had recovered by then and was on her feet.

"Wait, Jaina, don't!" Zekk cried, but she was already attacking the monster head on. She was then hit in the face by the creature's claws and fell against the ground. Zekk's green eyes flared and he lunged forward to block the beast from crushing Jaina. It snapped fiercely as Zekk's blazing blade crackled and burned the creature's scaly skin. If the creature could make a yelping noise, it did so, though it was lower and more anger driven than out of surprise. The beast reared and brough its jaws down to try to crush Zekk in them when a violet blade flew through the air and pierce straight through the beast's skull, temporarily stunning it, before it collapsed down on its knees, growling in pain.

All eyes turned to the brown haired boy who was now walking towards the beast he'd brought down by using his lightsaber as a spear. Anakin wrenched the blade out and with the force he healed the beast's cut on its head. Then Anakin put all thoughts of harming his friends out of the creature's mind before sending it away. Then his blue eyes examined the condition of his team.

Zekk was cradling Jaina, who was unconscious with a large gash on her head, Zekk had a few cuts but was otherwise fine. Raynar had received a head injury when the creature originally smashed through the forest, so he was being treated by Tekli. Everyone else seemed unhurt. Anakin put his lightsaber into his belt and went to talk to Kirk.

"You had us worried that you weren't going to be able to meet us." Kirk said with a smirk. Anakin's brisk tone told Kirk that Anakin was in a no-nonsense mood.

"I'm not going to just ditch the mission. I intend to finish it. If that means getting beat up here and there, I'll take the price." Anakin glanced at Zekk who was making his way over now that Jaina was being treated by Henthor.

"Helps having more than one healer." Zekk said, trying to sound more upbeat than he actually felt. Anakin noticed the distinction but said nothing about it. They didn't have time to talk about small things right now.

"That's the idea, I think." Kirk replied, adjusting his goggles so they were further up on his face. Anakin then decided they would wait until Jaina woke up because carrying unconscious forms would only complicate matters if they got into a battle. He wasn't about to cause more casualties because his team members were down for the count.

"We'll stay here tonight." Anakin decided. "We shouldn't push our luck with everyone injured." He cast a worried glance at his sister and Raynar. He wasn't letting his emotions guide his actions but he still didn't want to take risks, that was all.

Zekk nodded and went to inform the rest of the group. Kirk looked Anakin up and down.

"You should get your own injuries treated, Anakin." He suggested, "If you're hurt we can't move either."

"I'm fine." Anakin said and went off to sit under a tree. Synthor distributed rations to all the members canteens of water. It was all they were going to have for the majority of the trip, so Anakin didn't plan to eat his food. He took a swig of the water and rested his head against the tree.

Darkness fell across the team as they all settled in for the night. By now Jaina and Raynar were simply sleeping off the injuries and their healers informed Anakin that they would be awake by morning. Anakin thanked them before doing rounds on the rest of the group to make sure everyone was settled. Then Anakin took up sentry duty for the first part of the evening.

He winced as something cold touched his arm. His head turned to see Tahiri dabbing his arm with a wet cloth.

"You burned this pretty badly, you should have listened to Kirk." She chided, her green eyes narrowed as she used the cool water from her canteen to wet the cloth, he held her hand. She was wasting her rations and Anakin would have none of that. He held out his own canteen.

"It's my cut, use my water." He said firmly. Tahiri took Anakin's canteen and put the stopper in her own. They sat in silence as she then bound the cool cloth to Anakin's arm.

"Let me know when it gets dry, I'll wet it again." She said, putting away her water and handing Anakin's canteen back to him.

"It feels great, it's okay now." He replied, his voice backed by his self assuredness in his condition. Tahiri didn't respond but stared out at the darkened trees. She shifted so that her hands were resting on her knees.

For the past month before they had left for Mykyr, Tahiri had, on multiple occasions, tried to talk to Anakin about their fight. Anakin had said some things Tahiri resented but only because of how deep their bond was and because of what Master Skywalker had said, found it in herself to try to resolve the issue. But each time she tried to talk to him he was either too busy or had come up with a reason why he had to be elsewhere. Tahiri didn't know, despite Master Skywalker's insight, the exact reason why he had been so distantly cruel, other than he didn't want her to worry. Even that was too vague for Tahiri. What didn't he want her to worry about?

"I knew you were lying when you yelled at me." She said, continuing to stare into the night and not even bothering to look when Anakin's expression showed his initial shock at her realization. "After I'd thought about it I realized your emotions were saying the opposite of what you were saying to me." She then turned her steely eyes to Anakin. "But you still hurt me when you said that. Even if you want to push me away, there's no reason to say those things because it just insults me, nothing more. I don't care how much you say I'm a bad friend or that I mess up everything we do. I don't give a bantha fuck about it. So I want to know why you've bottled yourself up and decided it's a good idea to hurt me enough to keep me away from you."

She stared intently at Anakin who didn't look her in the eye. He opened his mouth and just as Tahiri was about to open her ears to listen to the truth, Anakin said something else.

"It's time to change shifts. You should get some rest." He got up and went to get Zekk and Jacen who had the next watch duty. Tahiri found herself feeling more hurt than when Anakin had yelled at her at the Academy, because now he was either avoiding that he'd hurt her in the first place, or was well aware of it and was going to continue to give her the cold shoulder until the mission was over. The last thing she wanted was to have their relationship be chilly when they had a dangerous situation at hand where anyone could die. As much as she didn't want to consider it, she wanted to be on good terms with him if anything happened to either of them.

Otherwise she'd never be able to forgive herself. Tahiri returned to her sleeping spot near the other female members of the team and slept light because she couldn't get the conversation she'd just had out of her head.

A cry broke the silence and this time it was followed by strange sharp words that Tahiri knew as Yuuzhan Vong. This time they weren't going to get off easily. She was up in seconds to see dozens of glowing blades igniting around her.

Luke stepped sideways at a fast backtrack to deflect the ongoing onslaught by the ever cool Xillanor. He swiftly raised his blade and brought it down on Luke's arm. Luke only managed to catch part of it on his own green blade. Luke scowled at the cut bleeding on his forearm. Xillanor stepped back, looking up at the Academy. Luke followed his gaze as a new group of soldiers and warriors was already swarming the above platform. Luke tried passing to the platform but Xillanor's blade slashed Luke again, this time across his cheek, making a tiny precise cut.

Xillanor's attack resumed, Luke knew he wasn't going to be allowed to rescue his students if this battle continued.