Last time: Sasha successfully got Oppie back and they stopped Dracul.

Now: Kyr continues to hold the line.

Chapter 8- 1 vs 300

Down below Kyr came to a stop mid air in the canyon beside the squad of troopers, they sent a withering storm of fire his way but his flying confused them, he unloaded the DLT down the line of them advancing up the trail as he flew beside them down their line. Their blaster bolts bounced off his chest and shin plates as he took out the nine stormies. Turning around he saw more down below. He unhooked a grenade from his belt and dropped it on top of them, acting as his own form of dive bomber. He circled back and landed at Dorn up hill.

Then the fire from the Star Destroyers started. It missed him going wide and where he had been. No direct hits, but it hit the ground around him like huge grenades going off, showering him in dirt and debris. Nothing penetrated his armor but he could feel the explosions in the air around him as his body absorbed the abuse. He was shell shocked for a moment before getting up.

"Tac!" He called, "I'm falling back to Aurek, I'll hold the cave entrance, you go mobile and stay out of the line of fire from those destroyers! Fire at will" He yelled. He wasn't quite sure how they would get out of this mess. Tac whistled back with elation, he didn't often get permission to fire at will.

Around the bend the YT-2300 roared to life as it took off, the hardened shield collapsing as Tac started maneuvering the ship around. His fire would be a little less precise, but at least it gave the Shadow a chance at not being caught in a storm of concentrated fire from the two Star Destroyers. Nothing he knew could stand up to that very long.

He passed the Shadow Runner as he maneuvered to land on the rock shelf, trading places with the ship. His last hold out before they would start being besieged in the cave. He brought his DLT to his shoulder and looked down the trail, making sure there weren't any enemies there before he would bolt back to the cave entrance.

More blaster bolts rained down on him, from behind. He swung around, more jump troopers, five of them. They must have jumped out of a troop transport mid air behind the short peak above them. His chest armor absorbed a few impacts from their covering fire as he tried to dodge them, and he returned fire with his DLT, taking one of them out. They landed, their packs not letting them sustain flight for long. One rocket-jumped forward and punched Kyr in the buy'ce, Kyr was knocked back a little but the offending trooper yelped in pain as he pulled back from punching the hard beskar with his unarmored glove. Kyr slammed the long rifle barrel up into his head, knocking him out.

Kyr glanced down at the rifle, seeing the barrel was bent, just a little, from the abuse, but enough to turn it into a bomb that would explode in his face if he tried to fire it again. Around him the three remaining took aim with their rifles. Kyr unslung the rifle from his shoulder and threw it at two of them as a distraction as a makeshift pilum, but it was enough to buy him a split second. He pulled his side arm out. Off to the side, behind the troopers was the carbine he had hidden earlier.

He rushed them, trying to keep moving lest the three of them pin him down, shooting as he ran. One of them fell to his blaster as the other two returned fire, one shot wide and merely singed his cape, another one landed a little closer to home and shot into the unarmored side of his vest. Kyr's staggered and dropped his pistol, but his momentum drove him forward. One of the troopers just let his rifle drop as he grappled Kyr, and, it must have been out of reflex, he bashed his helmeted forehead against mando's. It dazed Kyr only slightly, and he returned the favor using his own beskar buy'ce, hitting him hard. He let go of Kyr, dazed, as the mando unsheathed his knife and jammed it up through the bottom of his stormtrooper bucket, blood flowed freely. He whirled around and threw the knife through the eye of the last remaining jumptrooper, who fell limply to the rock. Kyr hobbled over, clutching his side, and pulled his knife free, and then turned to grab his pistol.

Colonel Kaifsen watched the Mandalorian take the last of the jump troopers out, and he was now staggering to grab his pistol, which he had dropped in the melee.

"That's it." He said ruthlessly. "Captain, order a barrage on that outcropping."

"Yes sir", the trooper captain beside him complied.

Tac whistled a warning, and Kyr stood up from retrieving the pistol on the ground, staring back at the star destroyers, and the green fire they were now pouring towards him.

"Osik Osik Osik!" He yelled running for the entrance, but too late. The barrage landed, and a bolt hit right behind him, sending him flying into the rock face. Around him the barrage continued, pummeling him. None hitting him directly but the storm continued, bashing him around. The armor could protect him from weapons fire, but not from the sheer battering of being pummeled in the middle of the barrage inside the armor. He felt bones breaking, his limbs turning at obscene angles, his chest crashed into a protruding boulder and he felt a horrible searing pain in his lung, then he was dazed as his head smashed into the side of his buy'ce.

"Cease fire, squad to move up." Colonel Kaifsen ordered.

Kyr was in a fog, he dragged himself to a sitting position against the rock face, not quite sure what...

The white armored troopers were approaching. He coughed, and the ferrous smell of blood filled the inside of his helmet. He also felt the sting of blood trickling down his forehead into his eyes, the sensation of blood trickling down from his nose over his mouth.

He had somehow hung onto his blaster pistol and he tried to bring it up, but the troopers were distant, fuzzy. He slowly squeezed off three shots as they ducked for cover, but they went wide as his arm failed him and he couldn't hold it steady.

He heard a loud whistling sound. Was that Tac, he wondered? Why did he sound so worried?

A voice crackled over the comm line. "Kyr, you said there was A star destroyer, I see two! Where'd you learn to count vod?"

"Kitsu?" He mumbled. He was so tired.

His arm fell limp, and the blaster fell from his hand, bouncing onto the rock shelf next to him.

His visor. It was cracked so it was hard to see things.

He saw a ship flash overhead, and the orange and white and black and fox color of Kitsu rocket down, and overhead the ship roared off to the star destroyers.

As Kitsu blasted the stormtroopers that were coming to visit him, she looked over her shoulder at him. "Kyr?" She sounded worried, too.

He closed his eyes, wanting to go to sleep.

He was so tired.

There was a display of beautiful lightning as one of the star destroyers was hit with ion bombs, that sent it listing into the ground.

That was nice.

Kitsu made sure the area was secure, the closest stormtroopers were further down the trail still, and it looked like they weren't sure what to do, so that gave her some time while they regrouped. She turned to face Kyr, he was laying there not really moving, his head listless. She checked the remaining area, she saw the debris from the bombardment, and off to the side she spied the somewhat hidden opening of a cave that went into the rockface.

"Kyr?" She called again worriedly, checking behind her, back towards the trail where the stormtroopers would approach. Tac was now performing strafing runs on the troopers unlucky enough to be caught in the ravine, raining shells down on them, using the ventral and dorsal heavy laser cannons. She even noticed that he was using the small anti-personnel blaster cannon that popped out of a hatch on the underside of the ship. Illara had just finished a bombing run on the second star destroyer, and the ion bombs had disabled both ships, since their shields were so ineffective in atmosphere, and they were going to join Tac in the mop-up strafing runs on the ground forces.

She jumped up from her crouch and sprinted to Kyr, kneeling in front of him. His armor was covered in dirt and dust, and the scorch marks of too many hits. His visor was cracked, and his flight suit was torn, burnt and ripped. She slung her rifle on her back and went to lift Kyr's buy'ce off. He pawed at her hands, as if trying to fight her away, as she reached for his buy'ce.

"Kyr's it's okay, I'm family." She said, he let his hands fall, limp. Family could remove your buy'ce.

His face was covered in blood, and his eyes were glassy and listless. His body was flinching with each heartbeat, and her own visor, networked to his, told her that his vitals were getting too thready.

"Come on Kyr, don't do this." She said, reaching into one of her pouches to grab an ampule of bacta cocktail and injected it into his neck. "Come on Kyr, stay with me!" She'd already lost so much family, she didn't want to lose Kyr to, he was like her little brother.

"Kitsu, what's going on down there?" Illara asked in a deeply worried tone. Tac also whistled gravely over the com, they were both patched into their com channel.

"Zherries..." Kyr mumbled. He got a little more alert, but his heart was still slowing. He was still flinching with every beat. "Kitsu?" He asked.

"Yeah, I'm here, come on Kyr, you'll be okay." She said, knowing she was lying.

"Did... they… save... Op?" He asked, listlessly, and tired, in between heart beats. He didn't focus on her. His eyes looked glassy, and weren't focused on anything.

"Yeah, he's fine, just like you'll be." She said, trying to hold back a catch in her heart. She didn't know what was going on, but she had to give him good news. She felt tears rolling down her cheeks.

"Tell... him…" he began in a slurred, whispering gasp. "... Tell him… I'm sorry… I'm sorry... I... forgive him." He coughed weakly, pink foam splattered from his mouth. A punctured lung.

"You can tell him yourself in a few minutes, stay with me, focus on my voice." She said, trying to remain calm. She started digging through her first aid pouch trying to find another ampule.

He ignored her as though he didn't know she was there. "Mom…" he gasped, "I'm sorry... I couldn't... Save… Op." His head went limp as his vitals dropped.

"No, no no! Come on, don't do this vod." She said, slapping his face . "Wake up, come on!" She yelled.

CLIFFHANGER! REVIEW!