With Scáthatch fighting the droid army in a direct battle, it falls on Ritsuka to rescue the trapped Twi'leks.
With a few troops on his command, Ritsuka snuk into the village where the separatist had set up the cannons.
"Master Scáthatch told me about a secure route all the way to the cannons. If we follow it, we should be able to avoid any confrontation" - Ritsuka said as he and the clones moved through the village.
"The clankers should be busy anyways with the main army and the rebellion, but better hurry" - Hound suggested - "If by any reason they start retreating, we're going to be in a lot of troubles" -
As the clones moved through the ruined village, they saw the remains of a battle that had taken place there, as the separatist didn't cared about the destruction they caused. The bodies of several Twi'lek were lying on the ground, some of them appear to have died in battle protecting their home, while others died trying to escape the chaos.
"I don't get it... Most of them weren't fighters, why did they attacked them?" - Ritsuka asked, as this was his first time in a real battlefield.
"The droids must have been programmed to destroy whatever was in their path and this village was one of the obstacles. Such a shame" - one of the clones answered as he examined the body of one of the dead Twi'lek - "Wait, this one's strange" -
"Copper, what's the matter?" - Hound asked the clone.
They all gathered to look at the corpse, and they noticed something that made all of them nervous. It had been killed by a lightsaber, not a blaster.
"We never recieved information about a Sith general in Ryloth" - Hound commented - "Fujimaru, did the General told you anything?" -
"We learned from General Skywalked that Li Shuwen was protecting the capital, but the information said he had barely arrived, he couldn't have done this" -
"This just got a lot more dangerous" - Copper said as he prepared his weapon, just in case...
"While this is strange, we can't dwell on it for too long. Come on, we need to save the prisioners" -
"Yes Commander!" -
Ignoring the bodies, the clones continued their path in the village, slowly getting closer and closer to the cannons and their objective, but when they were a few meters away, a droid patrol forced them to take cover inside one of the houses.
Inside, they witnesses how several droid transport ships started to drop more troops to aid with the defense of the cannons, as the one engaging the main army was alredy nearly wiped out. Problem? The newly arrived reinforcments nearly doubled the number of troops from both the Republic and the Twi'lek rebels.
"Guess we'll just have to go all out. As soon as they leave, we attack the group defending the cannons. I'll go after the commander, you take care of the rest" - Ritsuka layed out the plan to the clones.
"Got it, do your best Fujimaru" -
"Same for you Hound" -
When the reinforcments left to fight the main army, the clones and Ritsuka took acting, getting out of their hiding spot and started to attack the droids, carefully avoiding damaging the civilians.
As soon as he identified where the droid commander was, Ritsuka went all in against it. Using the Force to increase his capabilities, he jumped to the plataform where it was located before cutting down both of its guards.
"You may have stopped us, but you're too late, the capital is fully under our control" - the droid spoke in its mechanical voice.
"Then we'll take it back, don't think you won this fight" -
"We alredy did, ha ha ha ha ha" -
As the droid was laughing, Ritsuka cut it down with his lightsaber, stopping the cannons for good. He tried to join his clones in fighting his enemy, but he was lifted from the ground and thrown against a wall by someone he couldn't see.
"Is this all the Republic sent to rescue the prisioners? A simple Padawan? At least the Jedi Master before made things interesting" -
"Who are you? Show yourself" -
Ritsuka then saw how a droid's corpse started to get up from the ground and change, revealing a man with black hair tied in a ponytail.
"Call me Yan Qing" -
"Yan Qing? Are you a Sith apprentice?" -
"Why should I tell you that boy? Oh well, I guess it won't matter, you'll die anyways" -
Preparing a red lightsaber, he went directly in for the kill, but was stopped when a shot from one of the clones made him lose his concentrations, which as well caused him to drop Ritsuka.
The Padawan fully took this oportunity to attack Qing, but he was stopped before he could cut him down by his enemy's lightsaber.
"So you want to do it this way? Even while knowing you'll die in a one on one?" -
Fujimaru didn't answered, just prepared himself for the fight.
"It's almost as if you want to die" -
With a quick succetion of lightsaber strikes, Yan managed to back Ritsuka against a wall. He did no attempt to fight back, but instead kept a defensive stance. He knew he couldn't win a direct fight, but he'd at least buy some time for his clones to finish off the droids.
Qing threw yet another strike which Ritsuka barely managed to dodge by rolling while pushing his enemy back using the Force to allow himself to get back to his defensive stance.
"Sorry, but my plans don't include dying today" -
Dodging a second last moment strike, Fujimaru attempted to use his small knowledge of the force to subdue his enemy by holding him to the ground, but the ammount of effort was too much for him, which left him open to an attack for a few seconds.
"Guess your defence was for nothing!" - Yan yelled as he went in for the kill, but someone appeared to block him.
"Master Scáthatch!" -
"You're his Master!?" -
Purple lightsaber in hand, the Master stood in front of her Padawan while looking directly at Yan.
"I'll be your enemy now" -
As both prepared to engage in combat, the loud noise of ship engines was heard throughout the place. After Ritsuka destroyed the droid controlling the cannon, Hound called in for the air strike while the clones delt with the remaining separatist forces and helped the prisioners evacuate, and now it was time for it to arrive.
"Come on, let's get out of here" -
"Understood Master" -
Ritsuka and Scáthatch got away as fast as they could from the area of impact, with Yan Qing escaping as well. From a safe distance, alongside the clones and the freed Twi'leks, they saw how Republic bombers destroyed the cannons, which allowed the crusiers to drop to the planet.
The Republic was now one step closer to freeing Ryloth.