"AMBUSH!"
There was no time to react, emerging from hyperspace Anakin was expecting to find to see a few lonely, separatists ships flying over Kashyyyk, what he got instead was himself and his men charging a single assault ship into Grievous' fleet, before he could even react, several of them and swarm of fighters were already bombarding the shield around his starship.
"Sir, we're overwhelmed!" Rex exclaimed, screaming the obvious.
"It's a trap!" Anakin yelled "Should have seen this coming a mile away... get the hyperdrive ready...!"
"SIR IT'S BEEN DESTROYED!" A clone yelled, as a screen in the hanger exploded in a spray of sparks and broken glass, Anakin cursed to himself, whoever had given the council information was clearly lying. This was a trap right from the get-go and because the council were so desperate to bring justice to Grievous they'd sent in Anakin all alone, with nowhere near enough men, or supplies in order to take on Grievous. He was a gifted pilot and his men were gifted on how to operate this ship for an attack, but right now an attack was certain suicide, in fact staying on this ship for another ten minutes was going to be suicide, the bombardment was just too heavy, with the hyperdrive damaged straight away, Grievous' intentions had been clear.
"But why me, am I that much of threat!?" Anakin thought to himself, why was a whole fleet needed just to kill him? The only good thing that could have come out of this was the Separatist forces were so focused here, that they had to be lacking somewhere else. So while he was having a terrible day, another Jedi must have been having a breeze.
and he wasn't dead just yet, he could still live to fight another day and be a threat.
"SIR, AWAITING YOUR ORDERS!" Rex bellowed at him.
"Everyone to the escape pods, now!" Anakin roared "We'll regroup on the planet!"
"But sir!" another clone yelled "With their numbers, they'll trap us on the planet and send a battalion down too..."
Another blast shut him up and rocked the ship to the side, lights flickered overhead as all of Anakin's plans for assault died in his head. He was the leader now with no plan, other than to survive and get himself and as many men as he could out of this mess alive.
"We're sitting ducks here, we have a better chance on Kashyyyk!" Anakin exclaimed.
"SIR! THE SHIELDS CAN HOLD ONLY FOR ANOTHER MINUTE!" A clone screamed at him.
"THEN EVERYBODY ABANDON SHIP AND GET TO AN ESCAPE POD, NOW!"
"Like I said" C3PO whined as himself and R2-D2 entered an escape pod, with Anakin himself coming in behind them "The war just finds me at this point"
R2 beeped in agreement.
"Come on, everyone in, as many clones in here as possible!" Anakin yelled, as Rex and around 10 others cramped themselves into their general's escape pod, much to 3PO's displeasure, "Oh, honestly my joints are crushed..."
"Rookie, you there!?" Rex yelled out, to see where Doormat was awkwardly flattened against the wall of this tiny pod.
"Here, Captain" he yelled.
"Any room for two more General!?" two more clones asked, (Kix and Jesse) and without even waiting for an answer they dived into the already packed, pod. Crushing everyone further, Anakin didn't mind, from behind him he could hear the ship faltering under all the bombardment, it was now or never.
"Whoever's closest... activate the Pod..."
A clone did and with that it jettisoned itself away from the ship, speeding towards the jungle world of Kashyyyk, it's blue and green tinge growing large in Anakin's vision as the haze of the planet started to overcome what could be seen from the window.
"Oh my!" 3PO yelled suddenly "They're destroying the pods! and one's coming for us...!"
The clones knew this was going to happen, in these pods they were defenceless, but Anakin concentrated, not ready to go like this. He felt his strength in the force and the approaching blaster shots, with movements that exhausted him instantly, the pod made several unnatural movements, it was as if he was piloting his own starfighter, avoiding the lethal rays from behind him. The clones had nothing to hold onto too and were thrown around wildly, Anakin tried to keep focus and opened his eyes once again to see them speeding through clouds, approaching the ground far too fast...
"Activate the landing parachute!" he bellowed.
Another clone did just as the pod skimmed the treetops, it slowed the momentum down, but the pod still smashed through the branches of the highest tree's, the parachute became entangled and worthless, as the clones and droids alike screamed as they tumbled wildly through the forest, after a nauseating series of spins, with a final crash (that broke some bones) they had hit the ground. For a minute there was silence, just heavy breathing... no sound of any approaching fighters, it looked as though they had escaped (mostly) intact.
"Everyone alright?" Anakin finally asked, restoring his strength, that escape had been taxing on him.
"I can't feel my arm!" 3PO yelled dramatically, only for Anakin to discover, the protocol droid's arm was lying detached next to him.
"I'll reattach it 3PO" Anakin assured him "What about you men, you all okay?"
"I think my arm is broken sir" a clone whimpered.
"But we're mostly okay" Rex said " A few bruises and broken bones, but we're all still breathing"
Anakin sighed, things were bad but they could have been worse, they were alive and now Anakin had to decide what was going to happen next.
Of course he couldn't get a signal.
He tried climbing the tree's for better reception, to contact the council, to ask for help and reinforcements, but the fleet above would be jamming any form of communication. Anakin sighed and then returned to his men, shaking his head.
"Well it was about expected sir" Rex reassured him, bandaging one of his brother's broken arms, "We'll just have to wait for the rest of the men to make it down and decide what to do from there".
Anakin nodded, he crouched next to the pod wondering what to do now, he spent some time reattaching 3PO's arm as time ticked forward slowly and Anakin awaited the other men to arrive, he wasn't sure how long he'd been sitting there, listening to the general flow of the conversation of the clones around him, which was mostly just describing the assault they'd just escaped and what they'd do to Grievous once they got their hands on him, but the grim voice of Rex cut through him like a knife.
"Sir me and the men have been watching the skies for the past hour and the surrounding area" he informed the Jedi Knight "I'm one hundred per cent sure we're the only Pod to have survived".
Anakin stood up, the clones and the droids around him fell silent.
"How can you be so sure?"
"If any other pods made it, they'd have landed near to this area, we would have heard them or seen them and we all departed at roughly the same time, so there's nothing to cause a delay. If it wasn't for your force abilities sir, we'd have perished as well".
Anakin felt his breath catch in his throat, he knew it to be true, he could sense it, himself and the men he crammed into his pod had the best chance at survival, but he thought at least one other pod could have made it, but with the fleet and fighters there and with no defence, he shook his head, he shouldn't have been so foolish to even hope for a better result.
"How many men are here?" Anakin asked.
"Counting me, you and the two droids, there are 10 other men with us sir, so 14 of us altogether".
"and how many did we lose?"
Rex sighed.
"592 stationed on board that ship, general"
Anakin was silent once again, feeling the rage burn inside of him at this trap. They'd been flattened like insects, reduced to merely nothing, a grand attack ship ready to slay General Grievous... in the space of an hour they were now a helpless band of ragged survivors. Not equipped to deal with this planet, with limited supplies, a droid army on their backs and no way to contact for help, Anakin had to find them a way out of this.
"Okay..." he said containing his temper and allowing himself to be calm and collected, "The droids will know we've landed near here, we have to move. Last time I checked, Kashyyyk was loyal to the republic, the local wookies here should be able to help us, if we can find a settlement nearby, we'll head north and keep a sharp eye out for any approaching droids, sound good to all of you?"
The clones nodded in agreement, R2 echoed them.
"Of all places" 3PO groaned "With this jungle planet with it's walking carpets... oh my poor circuits are going to be fried..."
"We'll get through this, we've been through worse" Anakin said, to try and keep morale high.
With that, he led the way through the never-ending jungle on this planet, as he led the way Rex caught up to the shaken form of Doormat, who hadn't suffered any serious injuries or broken bones in the crash, but had been silent since the pod had crashed.
"You alright, kid?" Rex asked of him.
"I'm... I'm okay" he admitted "But out of nearly 600 men, out of all the rookies I started this mission with, I'm the only one left, the only shiny...you know, do things always just... not go to plan?" he inquired "Because, I was expecting a space battle, now I'm walking through a jungle and we're essentially screwed out here on our own".
"Well with Skywalker this is just about the expected result" Rex said, recalling many of the other fights he'd endured during this war, "But we're alive Doormat, let's not throw in the towel just yet".
"I just don't see what we can do from here"
"You'd be surprised" Rex said with a small smile "We aren't the 501st for nothing".
"That's true, but I suppose you'll have to add more tallies to your amour" Doormat pointed out.
Rex sighed, that was true, he also hadn't realised how many of the men he'd fought with for years had been wiped out in the space of minutes, he recalled how Anakin had used the force to save them all from certain death. If Rex had gone into another pod and done the same, maybe another 10 or 15 men could be with them now...
Maybe his power did have some merits after all.
A distant spec across the sky, distant, but it was certainly something that gained his attention, he was picking up game from one of the many traps he'd assembled around his base, when the distant sound met his ears, he looked up and saw it landing in the forest miles away.
He knew what it was and felt a mix of fear, elation and anger.
A republic escape pod?
Wasn't the invasion over? He'd heard the battles and tried dragging his injured body towards the conflict, it was where he belonged and what he longed for... but when he did... what he found was baffling. He was given no answers, nothing.
Simply hostility.
Now, something new had presented itself and as he wasn't going to sit around in this blasted forest for another day, munching on pitiful scraps of meat to survive. If something was happening, if the republic was back here, he was getting off this rock.
He placed the familiar helmet on his head and got to work.