Yep, major stuff will be going down in this chapter.
Obi-wan sped past a burning fighter, bright orange flames quickly taking over the metal. He couldn't tell if it was Separatist or Republic, but at that point it didn't matter; their forces were being pushed back.
Despite the Republic's valiant efforts, they failed to hold their original position for long. Their men were being shot down, more and more vulture droids appearing from the fleet of Separatist war ships. Hyena bombers and vulture droids were pouring out of the Separatist Dreadnaughts and overrunning many of the Republic's squadrons of clone fighters.
Sunlaou's crackling voice sounded on the commlink. "Master, I don't think we're gonna make it out of this one! We're almost completely overrun by Separatist forces!" He grunted as he took a hard left and almost crashed into a clone fighter.
"Just hang in there, Sunlaou. Where are you? R4, locate Sunlaou's position," Obi-wan steered his starfighter in the direction of Sunlaou's own. From what he could see, the Jedi Knight was with a squad of men and they were being tailed by two squads of vulture droids.
The two squads of vulture droids opened fire, taking out the clone fighters on the left and right of Sunlaou's fighter. A stray laser hit Sunlaou's left wing, smoke and sparks trailing from the gaping hole.
"Sunlaou!" Obi-wan yelled over the commlink.
"Master, an engine's been taken out!" Sunlaou kept one hand on the controls as he struggled to shut off the gas flow to the destroyed engine. Something blew out on his left, more metal and sparks flying out.
R6 chirped frantically, trying its best to keep the fuel leakage from igniting in the sparks. Its dome shaped head swiveled around to face Sunlaou, beeping in low tones.
"I know they're still following us!" he snapped. Sunlaou spared a glance over his shoulder through the hatch to glare at the vulture droids still shooting at them. He only had one man left with him, and he was experiencing fighter problems of his own.
"General, I've got two on my tail!" the clone yelled, a hint of fear creeping into his voice.
"Just hang in there, Skear!" Sunlaou spun, making a hard right and aiming his laser canons at the first vulture droid behind Skear. He fired, narrowly missing Skear's wing and hitting the droid behind him.
Obi-wan, barely managing to keep pace with his own starfighter, fired at the remaining vulture droid.
"Thanks, Generals!" Skear said, gratitude evident in his voice.
"Skear, you should go and get that checked out," said Sunlaou, re-focusing on the direction of the Separatist dreadnaught.
"And what about you?" Obi-wan asked. Smoke still trailed heavily from Sunlaou's wing.
"I'll be fine, Master. Just focus on the battle!" Without waiting for a response, he changed his flight path and headed into the fray of the battle.
Obi-wan sighed, pressing the open commlink button to contact General Mundi. "General Mundi, do you read me?"
Ki-Adi Mundi's tired voice came over the system, the connection crackling before clearing up again. "Yes, I'm here. We just managed to finish getting rid of these Lizards. I'm sending my men out now."
A sigh of relief was heard as Obi-wan trained his focus on General Mundi's star destroyer, and sure enough, he could see his Jedi starfighter fly out of the main hangar exits.
All that was left now was to call for reinforcements.
Alick felt a crushing weight on top of him, and something sharp was biting into his arm. He screamed, the cry almost echoing through the forests.
"Alick!" Aella screamed, instantly pulling the blaster she had by her side.
Alick could feel himself being dragged through the bushes, the pain in his arm spiking til nausea crept up his throat. "Help!" He stretched a hand toward Aella's retreating face. Digging his feet into the ground did nothing to slow the Lizard that had a hold of him. Up above him, he could see blue blaster fire spreading through the trees and destroying the beautiful green foliage. Alick struggled to wrest his arm free of the Lizard's iron grip, but only succeed in making it angrier.
"Let him go!" Aella rushed to keep up with the Lizard. The farther they ran, the farther away from the camp they got. She squeezed off as many shots as her small fingers would allow, aiming for the back of the Lizard's neck.
The Lizard stopped and spun, a menacing glare in its glowing yellow eyes and vertical pupils narrowed into slits. It braced its large clawed hands on Alick's chest, clamping down even harder on his arm.
Alick could hear bones breaking under the armor, the only thing to be heard besides his screaming. "Help—!"
"Don't!" Aella fired another laser, this one skimming off the Lizard's back.
The Lizard reared its head up, and a loud, sickening tearing noise ripped through the jungle.
Another scream tore through Alick's throat, pure pain and agony curdling in his throat—and then it stopped. Only a strangely deep, pulsing ache was felt.
"Alick!" Aella cried, her footsteps crashing through the underbrush. She tripped over a root and scrambled to her a feet again, abandoning her blaster. The Lizard ran off, ducking through the low branches, but that was the least of Aella's worries. She stopped by Alick's side, shouting his name. "Alick, can you hear me? Can you hear me, Alick?"
Alick could hear her, but the deep ache coming from his shoulder was making the rest of his body numb. He could barely see her through his visor, and for a moment he wondered if his helmet had been damaged when he was dragged through the forest before he realized that he was beginning to lose consciousness. Almost sluggishly, he reached an arm over to feel what the damage was to his arm and felt…nothing.
Absolutely nothing. His hand pressed weakly into the dirt and leaves below.
The full realization of what had happened slammed into Alick, and he cried out in horror. "M-My arm…" His head turned frantically, looking in disbelief at the space where his arm used to be. "W-What happened to my arm?" Waves of nausea assaulted him, pounding inside his head and making him gag. The air in his bucket was suddenly thick and imapossible to inhale.
"Alick, stay calm, I'm going to get help. You're going to make it out of this!" Aella pressed a hand over the bleeding wound of his shoulder, trying to stem the flow of blood that leaked between her fingers.
Alick could feel the nausea twist in his stomach, pinching and making it hurt. The vomit rose up and out of his throat faster than he could try to get his helmet off.
Aella heard choking coming from under Alick's helmet, and with one hand she pulled it off of his head just as he threw up on his shoulder. "Oh kriff, Alick…" Aella whispered.
Alick's breathing was becoming out of control, and the color was draining from his face at alarming rate.
"Help!" Aella yelled into the jungle. She wasn't sure how far away the camp was, and she didn't want to leave Alick alone when he had the chance of bleeding to death. "Somebody help!"
Alick cracked his eyes open, fighting off unconsciousness as hard as he could. "A-Aella…" he croaked. His throat tightened at the prospect of what could be happening to him. I should have accepted her apology…he thought with regret.
Aella looked down to the tears brimming in Alick's eyes before he squeezed them shut again, biting his lip to keep from crying out.
Behind her, Aella, could hear clones crashing through the bushes, shouting her name. "Princess, are you there?" they called, aiming the blasters in case another Lizard attacked.
"I'm over here!" she called frantically, pressing both her hands against the gaping wound. "Alick's hurt! His arm was taken, please help!"
The first clone to reach her knelt by her side, injecting Alick with a stim shot and a painkiller.
It was too late; Alick lay still on the ground.
The whip cracked against the metal chains attached to Kiki, pain ripping through her body. Bright spots swam in her eyes, and sweat rolled down her forehead.
"Oh, is it getting too hot for you?" their torturer said, deactivating his electro whip. "I'll see if I can fix that. I heard you mammals don't really like too much heat."
Vents up above them began to shutter and vibrate, freezing air flowing downward and drastically chilling the air. For a moment, it was nice, but within a few seconds the temperature had plummeted to freezing temperatures and goose bumps had risen on everyone's skin.
"Is that better?" the Lizard asked, clipping the electro whip to his belt in favor of a staff. He jabbed the end of the staff into Kiki's shackles, purple electricity lighting up the room.
Kiki screamed as her back arched, her head hitting the stone wall.
From his end of the line, Rex watched in horror as Kiki's skeleton flashed. "Stop!" he shouted, pulling against his chains. "Stop!"
"Shut up!" a second Lizard said, cracking a whip across his chest.
Rex continued to shout, despite the pain ripping through his chest. "You have to stop! Please!" the chains jangled loudly.
The second Lizard sent a menacing glare at Rex, his hot breath fogging the frigid air in front of him.
Kiki's screams rose in pitch
"Stop!" Rex cried. The rough shackles around his wrists burned and tore his already sore skin, and his thrashing wasn't helping.
The Lizard ignored him and pressed the staff harder into her shackles.
Rex didn't bother trying to stop what he was about to say. It was better that Kiki's secret come out than that she died because he kept his mouth shut. "She's pregnant!"
The room fell silent, the Lizard pulling the electro-staff away from Kiki's shackles. She snapped her eyes open, panting heavily. Her hands shook violently above her. "No!" Kiki said. "I'm not—"
"We already know you are," the Lizard said, standing the staff by his side. "Did you really think we wouldn't have noticed by now? I can smell it on you." His voice held a note of disgust as he, narrowed his eyes at Kiki, almost accusingly. "We can't torture you as much as the others—and we haven't. Wouldn't want to lose the child—it'd make nice leverage against the Jedi."
An overwhelming guilt, heavy as the metal that chained her to the wall, settled like dust in Kiki's stomach. From somewhere beside her, she felt an almost…despair, for whatever reason. She looked up to see Jax staring at the ground, a completely desolate expression on his face.
She didn't have time to say anything as they were removing her chains from the lock on the wall and dragging her toward the door. It opened and another hulking Lizard was waiting on the other side, a clawed hand held out to take her wrists. She screamed. "Let me go, you bastards!" Kiki tries desperately to kick away from them, but was only met with a hard blow to her shin.
"Sit still; you'll go back to your friends," the Lizard, female, said. "You won't be gone long…"
The first prison master turned and reactivated his electro whip. The torture continued.
Yes, you read all of that correctly. Obi, Sunlaou, and Ki-Adi Mundi may not make it out of the battle (there's more than one dreadnaught), Alick is missing an arm and may/may not be dead, and Kiki is pregnant—and no, I am not saying who the father is.
~AAx
Edit (Again): Still going back through the chapters and making the torture scenes for Kiki a bit less intense, as well as overall lessening the amount of injuries everyone received. Some of these things are not survivable. If there's anything I missed, don't be afraid to tell me.
