A few weeks later…
"Are you excited to be going back to Coruscant?" Jax asked, as the Duchess descended down to the surface. Esinon yawned,
"I'm just looking forward to sleeping," she replied, Jax chuckled,
"Whoa, you actually want to sleep?" he joked, Esinon rolled her eyes.
"We've been going at these missions non-stop for four months, I'm exhausted," she said, running her hands down her face.
"Yeah, I'm looking forward to the rest too," he said, Esinon nodded as she felt the ship jolt into the hanger. She could hear the hiss of the ship as it decompressed,
"Alright, let's go get everyone checked in," she said with a sigh, she called her datapad into her hand, "Come on Judy," the bunny droid bounded after her and Jax all the way down the catwalk while Esinon slowly checked everyone in as they made their ways to the transports heading to the barracks. A few hours later, the last troopers were loaded onto the transport, "Is that everyone?" she asked with a yawn, Jax nodded, "Ok, I'm going to head back to the temple,"
"I'll drive you, you look like you're gonna pass out," he said, walking towards a speeder, she nodded, too tired to argue. A few minutes later they had arrived at the temple and Esinon hauled her few belongings over her shoulder, thanked Jax, and started her walk to her new apartment. Since she had been deployed so quickly and for so long, she hadn't had time to meet her new roommate, or unpack her things. She finally arrived at her new apartment, fishing her keys out of her pocket. She unlocked the door and entered,
"Hello!" she called, a young woman walked out. She had dark, tan skin, and white facial markings. A bracket looking shape on her forehead and a similar marking on her chin, she also had two lines drawing down from the corner of her eyes. Speaking of her eyes, they looked so… familiar. She recognized that amber color.
"Hello," she greeted, "Are you Esinon?" Esinon nodded,
"Hi, Esinon Windcaster, nice to meet you," Esinon said, holding out her hand for her to shake. The woman hesitantly took it,
"Jayla Archer," she said,
"I would love to talk more but I really need to sleep," she said tiredly,
"Sure," Jayla replied skeptically, Esinon gave a tired nod before heading to her room. None of the boxes had been touched, left exactly where she had placed them over four months ago. Esinon sighed, not having enough energy to look for a blanket. Instead, she grabbed a cloak, wrapped herself in it, and collapsed onto her bed, falling asleep instantly.
Back at the clone barracks…
Jax collapsed in his bunk below Bo's, his face down in the pillow. He knew he would regret it later but he was too tired to strip off his armor. He felt Bo tug on his vambrace, effectively pulling it off.
"Did General Windcaster get back to the temple alright?" he asked as he carefully pulled all of Jax's armor off and stacked it in a neat pile. Jax nodded,
"Yeah, I drove her back and she walked into the temple. I'm sure she's fine," he murmured, as Bo pushed him up so he could pull off his chest plate.
"She looks like she hasn't slept in weeks,"
"Probably not," Jax murmured, "I saw her in the medbay during the night for at least the last week. Bev got injured, she barely left his side."
"For not liking the medbay, she sure does spend a lot of time in there," Bo replied, pulling a blanket over Jax.
"She looks out for us," he murmured, Bo nodded,
"Get some rest, I'm gonna go check on the others," Jax nodded as Bo turned off the lights and slipped out of the room.
The next morning…
Esinon rubbed her eyes as she fiddled with a teapot on the stove. She'd accidentally overslept, and by the looks of Jayla had been up for hours. But in her defense, Esinon had barely slept for the last few days. She finally heard the teapot whistling, she grabbed it off the stove and poured herself a cup. She glanced up at the sound of the door opening, and Jayla entered, holding a towel and a water bottle.
"Good morning," Esinon greeted, forcing a smile onto her tired face. Jayla gave her a curt nod,
"See you're not the early bird to catch the worm," she said, Esinon glanced down at her cup of tea, she forced a chuckle.
"Yeah, not exactly a morning person," she said, 'Well if you'd been deployed for four months non-stop you'd be exhausted too,' "Just woke up a little late that's all," Jayla nodded again before leaving without another word, Esinon sighed, deciding to take her cup of tea to her room and start unpacking. Maybe she could slip back to Anakin and Obi-Wan's apartment and spend some time there instead of in here. It smelled unfamiliar in here, and it was stark. It wasn't like her old apartment, it looked like Jayla hadn't bought anything personal for the apartment, everything in here was Jedi issued. She sighed, disappearing into her room, hoping to make things a little more homely.
A few hours later…
"Haha!" Esinon cheered, "Full sweep, that's ten for me, zero for you," Spitfire stared glumly at the TV screen where his pod racer had crashed.
"I swear you're using the force," he grumbled as Esinon began another game,
"You say that every time Spitfire," Glitch said looking up from his book,
"Well she is," he grouched, Esinon chuckled,
"Or I've been watching pod races since I was five and these courses are all based on real ones," she said, using her controller to race her pod past four other people.
"Did you get moved into your apartment alright General?" Jax asked, grumbling to himself as Dej took once again a win in Dejarik. After all, it was what he was named for.
"Yeah, I don't think my roommate likes me very much though," she said,
"Who's your roommate?" Glitch asked,
"Jayla Archer," she replied, quickly racing her pod around another tight corner and chuckling as Spitfire crashed once again.
"Wait, isn't she the new General of the 673rd?" Jax asked, Esinon tensed,
"What?" she asked,
"The 673rd, General Krell's old legion, before he died in the battle of Umbara," Jax said casually, Esinon's shoulder blades tensed, her hands about to crush the controller in her hand.
"Krell didn't die in battle," she replied, her voice strained as she tried to keep from growling his name out.
"Well then what happened to him?" Spitfire asked,
"He betrayed us all," she snapped, "The Jedi won't tell you this because if it's found out one of their own fell to the Darkside and started aiding the Separatists, the media would have a field day and the Jedi's image would be ruined." All of the troopers glanced around at one another, "He killed hundreds of troopers, he doesn't deserve the 'honorable' death that the Jedi portray he had." They all went silent after that, Dej glanced from his General to the ground. A Jedi had betrayed them? Had toyed with their lives, it made him feel sick. He sighed, glancing back up at his General for a moment, she must have been there. He just wanted to know why a Jedi would ever do that.
One week later…
Supply drops. Supply drops were boring in her opinion, but they were necessary. They were about to be deployed again and if they were out for as long as they had been last time they were going to need these supplies… but she was still going to grumble about it. She groaned as another ship pulled down into the hanger,
"Another one?" she asked, Bo nodded,
"Yup, no rest for the weary I guess," he said, she sighed.
"Alright, let's get all of this stuff unloaded,"
"Oh, and General," Bo said, she glanced up from her datapad,
"Yeah?"
"Our next mission is with General Archer,"
Jayla didn't like her new roommate, and unfortunately for her, she now had a mission with the 221st. Esinon was far too young to be a knight and didn't have the experience necessary to lead a legion yet.
"Are you alright General?" Uno asked, worried at the permanent scowl that seemed to have set in upon Jayla's face.
"Fine," she replied, Uno nodded, backing up a little bit. She sighed, forgetting she couldn't be that cold with Uno without him getting anxious. Krell had really done a number on her Commander. "I'm sorry Uno, I'm just not looking forward to this mission, that's all," he nodded again,
"I'm sure it'll be alright General," he said, she chuckled,
"Your optimism is greatly appreciated Uno," their cruiser the Vigilance pulled up next to the Duchess. "Alright, let's get the transports loaded up." The men of the 818th dressed in aqua blue loaded into their transports and headed over to the Duchess, Jayla took a preliminary glance around the hangar of the Duchess, eyeing the mess of broken ship fighters and crates of supplies. "Looks like Esinon keeps her ship about as clean as her room," she muttered, the transport halted and she could see Esinon wearing the same grouchy expression that Jayla had been wearing for the last few hours. Jayla sighed, it was going to be a long mission. "General Windcaster," she greeted,
"General Archer," Esinon replied coldly, Bo and Uno glanced at one another. They were realizing that this mission was going to be unpleasant for all of them. "Command center is this way," Jayla suppressed an eye-roll, ship layouts were the same. She didn't need someone to show her the way. Well, she was wrong, the Duchess had a far different layout than the Vigilance. They passed another strange looking room, that was marked Cortex, she stopped for a minute watching as a long-haired clone ducked when a circular disk flew over his head.
A clone with purple hair and long mechanical arms leapt over the clone with the long hair and grabbed the disk that lodged into the wall. He then pulled out a tape recorder and began blabbering into while he examined the disk. She finally decided to leave it alone and followed after Esinon. They finally arrived at the command center, where a trooper with blue and yellow checkers on his armor handed Esinon a datapad. She scanned the document before giving him a nod of thanks, "Alright, here's what we got," she began, plugging in the datapad into the command pod. "The Separatists are moving towards armored based on Ryloth near Lessu. We aren't exactly sure why but our objective is to go there, survey the Separatists' activity, and then engage if necessary."
"And only if necessary," the Captain said, shooting General Windcaster a look. She smirked,
"Correct Jax, only if necessary," she said,
"And they needed two legions for this?" Jayla asked skeptically,
"It's a lot of Seppie activity," she said, Jayla sighed. So Esinon really had been doing this war thing since she was a padawan, she'd even adopted the clones' slang. Jayla was pretty sure that the clones had taught Esinon mando'a as well, she mumbled to herself in mando'a a lot. It was normally grumbling about Jayla, but she knew mando'a too. No, the clones didn't teach it to her. "Besides, we want to make a statement, maybe the seps will back off if they see we outnumber them."
"I doubt it," Jayla replied, staring down at the holo map. "If the Separatists have been ordered to destroy or take the bases, they won't stop. Besides, they have resources to expend unlike we do. Another three million droids were just ordered by the Separatists, this is most likely why they are even attacking the base, because they have resources to expel. Because strategically this attack doesn't even make sense." Esinon glanced from Jayla down to the holo-map.
"I guess… you're right," she conceded, "So you think we should be ready for a full-scale battle?" Jayla nodded,
"It's not going to be pretty, I would brief and prepare your men now," she said, Esinon nodded,
"Ok, I will… go do that now," she said, walking out of the room with her Commander close on her tail. Jayla watched her walk out, fiddling anxiously with her sleeves.
"She seems… flustered," Jayla murmured, "What was the council thinking?"
"Sir?" Uno asked, Jayla sighed,
"It's nothing," she replied, "I just wonder how ready General Windcaster is to lead her own men," Uno shifted from one foot to another.
"Permission to speak freely General?" he asked,
"Always,"
"I think General Windcaster is a capable leader, but I think that she's not used to having General Kenobi bolstering and guiding all of her decisions. The rug of having a mentor got pulled out from under her fairly quickly, which is why she seems… flustered," he explained, Jayla hummed,
"That does make sense… that's very insightful Uno, thank you,"
"Of course General," she could sense him smiling under the helmet. Even though they'd known each other for almost two years now, Uno was still warming up to her. Her men had been so cold to her before but granted she'd been cold to them too. She had a… difficult past with the clones.
"We should probably brief our men as well," she said after a moment. Uno nodded, and with that, the pair headed down to the hanger where the 818th was waiting."
The surface of Ryloth…
Jayla watched as the last of her men and Esinon's men were loaded out of the gunships and onto the surface. Esinon surveyed the area, there was nothing out here, just dry desert. It would be impossible to use her guerrilla style of fighting out here because there was nothing to hide behind. Out here she would have to face the Separatists head-on, which meant far more casualties. A head-on approach was Seppie home court, Esinon sighed. She was really getting a bad feeling about this battle. Jayla knelt down, pressing her fingertips to the surface.
"How's it looking, General?" Uno asked, Jayla glanced up at him.
"It may be a barren desert but there's a massive root system down there, it's time to level the playing field," she said, glancing at Esinon who was staring at her confusedly. "Your men might want to get next to the base, it's gonna get a bit… messy around here." Esinon raised an eyebrow but instructed her men to do what Jayla said anyway. Uno had herded the men of the 818th away as well. She took a deep breath, planting a foot firmly into the ground, drawing her arms close to her body.
She twisted her foot, in the dirt, pushing her arms forward and striking her limbs downward in an x formation. Roots erupted from the earth, rumbling and rippling like waves in the ocean.
Jayla pulled her arms upward, spinning her body around as the roots wove themselves together, creating a large forest around the armored bases. She continued her gracefully bending of the root system until she had finished her dense foliage creation. She brought her arms back tucked to her hips and let out a deep breath, opening her eyes. Esinon was staring at her dumbfounded, she assumed that Esinon's commander was wearing a similar expression under the helmet, judging from the way it was titling. Esinon's commander leaned down and whispered something to her, Esinon shook her head.
"No Bo, I can't do that," Jayla suppressed a smirk, she knew Esinon was too young for this. The elder Jedi walked back over to her Commander, trying, and failing to keep a smug look off her face. She glanced out among the forest she created,
"Esinon, let's go do some recon," she said, walking into the dense foliage, the young Jedi scampering after her. Jayla let out a sigh as Esinon used her speed to catch up, this mission was just beginning, and she'd had enough of Esinon. Jayla continued through the forest, watching warily and carefully bending vines out of the way if need be. Esinon seemed skittish, far too skittish. She needed to get in battle-ready if she was gonna lead, "Esinon, are you alright?"
"Fine," she muttered, crossing her arms over her chest. Jayla rolled her eyes, eighteen-years-old and Esinon still acted like she was four. She sighed, trying to keep her negative thoughts out and release them into the force but so far it didn't seem to be working- Jayla flicked her hand on instinct as a blaster bolt ripped towards her head. Instantly a vine had appeared and caught the bolt. She drew her arms across her body, the vines following and she thrust them forward, grabbing a droid of the tree line and hurling it into another thick vine, shattering it to pieces.
"It's an ambush!" Esinon shouted, drawing her lightsaber and starting to deflect the onslaught of blaster bolts. Jayla twisted her hands around her waist, pulling roots up from the ground and attaching them to her legs. She thrust her arms upward sending her skyward, she pushed her arms out and down, and instantly a layer of the forest flattened and disappeared back into the ground.
She pinpointed each position of the droids and struck her arms up, bringing a vine stabbing through each droid with deadly accuracy. Esinon stared out at the decimated remains of the droids, starting to get very, very annoyed. Jayla couldn't even save her one. The elder Jedi rushed forward, still mounted upon her tower of vines, toward the droids that were emerging from the treeline.
She released herself from her tower, flipping over the back and kicking its head off. She flicked a finger, a vine came pummeling out of the ground, and grabbed a droid that was attempting to charge her. She threw that droid at least half a klick, Esinon attempted to join in the fight but Jayla used a vine to push her back and keep her in place, but that wasn't going to stop Esinon. She charged up her lightning, firing a bolt at the oncoming droids.
"Hey!" Jayla shouted, Esinon grabbed her lightsaber, slicing her way out the vines.
"You're not the only one who can do fancy stuff!" she shouted, cracking a whip of lightning at an oncoming droid, Jayla growled, pummeling another vine in four more droids. Esinon snarled, "so that's how you wanna play" She muttered, Esinon flipped over Jayla, clapping her hands together with immense force sending an electrified shockwave through the entire wave of oncoming droids. They all collapsed to the ground, leaving Esinon and Jayla standing, Esinon wearing a very smug look on her face. She dusted off her robes, reclipping her lightsaber to her belt.
"What are you doing!" Jayla shouted as she glared at Esinon,
"What? You're not the only one who can fight you know," she huffed, Jayla growled,
"This isn't a game, you're not equipped for this, you should have just let me handle it!" she replied,
"Excuse me?" Esinon asked, "I have been doing this since I was a padawan, I am perfectly capable thank you very much."
"Argh! You're so immature!"
"Immature? You think I'm immature? Have you looked in the mirror ice princess? You think you have to do everything by yourself and that I can't handle myself. Well, guess what, I was knighted younger than you so I guess the council doesn't agree with you!" Jayla barked out a laugh,
"They only knighted you because they couldn't knight anyone else," Esinon's stomach dropped, it was too soon. She didn't say anything more and stormed off back through the forest back to their bases.
"General, what happened? We heard blaster shots," Jax asked as she stomped back into camp,
"We got ambushed, I'm fine," she gritted out, not wanting to talk about anything that had just happened.
"Where's General Archer?" Jax prompted,
"I don't care," Esinon snapped before disappearing into the base. Jax sighed,
"So do you know what happened?" Bo asked,
"No, "Jax grumbled, "She's being stubborn as ever,"
"Well you should've known that she grew up around General most stubborn life-form to ever roam the galaxy," Bo joked,
"Not helping Bo," Jax grumbled, Bo patted his shoulder,
"Sorry, but you should just let her have her little temper tantrum and I'm sure she'll be back to herself in a couple of hours," he said, Jax sighed,
"Well, I hope you're right because I think there are a lot of droids headed our way,"
Sorry this chapter is so short yall, I have like no motivation to write because I've got a lot of homework and I've been struggling lately. If anyone wants to PM me to help me brainstorm some ideas or some arcs in windcaster (I have some bases but not a lot of fleshed out ideas) that would be so spectacular
Anyways, I'm about as tired as Esinon is and I haven't even started my English homework, so that's fun. I like don't have motivation to do anything
Next up on let's make this canon corner: Esinon one time tried to hold a mediation session with the 221st. It didn't end well, Bo actually did pretty well but that's only because he's an ARC trooper. Spitfire couldn't hold still. Glitch and Jax kept making each other laugh. Dej was trying really hard to focus but in doing that he didn't relax enough to actually have a good experience. She decided not to do that anymore
thank you for reading and make sure to leave a review!
