Zaila had heard it, they all did, an explosion from the Venator, knocking the engines out. As she stepped out of the alley to join the gathering crowd she saw an ARC-170 speed off into the upper-atmosphere. Zaila looked over to her blue togruta friend, the two sharing a look of concern for the Jedi friends, they were last seen heading to that Venator. Murmurs in the crowd were speculating what it could've been, CIS? Traitors? Defective clones? The theories were wilder than the jungles outside the gate, and they'd only get wilder. Zaila gently pulled on Alta's beige sleeve. "If they were on there, nothing we can do about it. Let's get home and hope that thing doesn't hit the ground too hard."
As the pair walked down the main road Zaila saw clones gathering in the street ahead of them. Sanding in the line of clones, a familiar helmet design not dissimilar to a child's art project. Once the two got within 10 feet of the clones, the men in white and purple all raised their blasters. Alta turned her head around, maybe there were droids behind them, but no there was almost no one behind them. Zaila felt their emotions, rage, pain, all nothing good, and they were directed at her and Alta. The togruta stepped forward, trying to get the attention of their shared friend in the firing line. "J-Jawbreaker? What's going on?" She said through cracking vocals.
Zaila on the other hand, knew something was off and instinctively brought her hand to something that could settle her nerves. A silver cylindrical object pushed into her belt. As she ran her thumb over it the object was jostled loose from her belt and fell to the floor, allowing the clones to see it. They all looked down at the object, then at Zaila as she scrambled to retrieve it, and opened fire on the two. Zaila managed to push Alta out of the way of a blue bolt, but caught that same shot to her shoulder. Now her hand was grasped firmly around Alta's arm as she ran towards the gate, kicking over a cart they passed to hopefully slow down the troopers behind them.
As they passed the gates the ground trembled violently, the trees swayed rapidly, and leaves fell all around them. Zaila made a split-second decision and ducked directly into the brush, wincing at branches smacking against the singed flesh of her shoulder. Zaila did not stop running until she heard the wheezing coming from her friend, and even then she made sure to climb under the roots of a large tree. With the coast clear for now, she turned to check up on Alta, who was currently hyperventilating.
"Hey, hey" She'd say softly, holding onto the shoulders of her friend. "Breathe, slowly breathe okay?" Zaila made sure to keep eye contact with the togruta as she slowly assisted her in breathing, and slowing down the hyperventilation. Zaila even hummed a small melody her parents used to sing to her, before they… yeah. Eventually she got Alta to calm down and not pass out from lack of oxygen. "Alright… I know we just went through a lot an-"
Zaila couldn't even finish a sentence before Alta started yammering away. "WHAT WAS THAT-- WHY DID JAWBREAKER FIRE AT US-- WHY DID THEY ALL CHASE US-- WHAT HAPPENED TO THE SHIP-- ZAILA WHAT IS GOING ON?!" To which Zaila would slump a little, partially from the exhaustion of running, and partially from not knowing an answer to any of those questions. "I- I don't know Alta. I genuinely do not know. What I do know is we need to get as far away from the city as possible okay? And we need to keep moving in case they come searching for us, okay?"
It was at this point that Alta noticed the wound on Zaila's shoulder and instantly went into protective togruta friend mode. "Oh my- Zaila! You got hit- WHat were you think-" Zaila quickly interrupted Alta, saying. "I'm okay Alta, that doesn't matter right now, what matters is that we both get to safety. Which means we need to move, now." With that said, the redhead stood up and out of the roots, making sure the coast was clear before pulling Alta out from under the root, and walking in the direction they were going before.
As the two walked through the jungles the sounds of wildlife surrounded them, chattering primates, singing avians, and chattering rodents. The sticks cracking under their boots gave way to thin mud, then to shallow wetlands. The trees around them changed from thick trunked to sprawling rooted, from large pronounced leaves to hanging vines. The scorched wound on Zaila's shoulder throbbed as she walked, though she pushed on, if the two of them didn't find a cave or some form of shelter before sundown the nocturnal wildlife would tear them to bits.
Alta on the other hand kept running the scenario though her head. It happened so fast, the ship, the clones, everything. Zaila was also hurt! She got hit in the shoulder for Force's sake! "Zaila, as soon as we get some shelter I am taking a look at that shoulder." She said, giving the redhead no room to weasel out of receiving treatment.
As the two trudged through the shin-deep waters a rock shelf started appearing through the trees, with many dips and crevasses along the jagged surface. Ahead Alta spotted what looked to be a substantial gap in the rockwork. As they stepped up from the murky waters and onto the hard rock they looked down into the blackness, depending on how deep into the earth it went they may have just found a suitable shelter. Alta pulled a small lamp from the kit suspended from Zaila's non-injured shoulder and tried to power it on, with no success. As the togruta smacked the side of the device trying to get it to work Zaila drew the object from earlier and depressed a button on the middle of it. A bright blue blade forged from pure light extended from the end with a distinct hiss, bathing the cave before them in a soft blue glow.
As the redhead lifted the blade above her head she gave a slight wince from the extra pressure on her injury. A small streak appeared down her arm from the middle of the scorched flesh, appearing purple from the blue glow that surrounded them. As the two explored the stone formation a soft hum from the blade echoed off the walls around them, and the light of day slowly faded from behind them