Sorry I haven't updated for so long. In this chapter, the team makes some progress, although it wouldn't necessarily be called 'good'…
"We've got to formulate a new plan!" Salis was running low on the charge of his blaster, a small red light showing him that he needed to reload soon or risk getting shot.
A blaster bolt barely missed Kanari's head as she shot down Lizards with her rifle. She struggled to continue supporting Rex's weight as she fired the heavy weapon with one hand. Inwardly, she berated herself for not bringing something more practical. She had more blasters that would have been better suited for her mission.
"Kanari!" Rex said above the noise. "Kanari, you have to put me down! Go take cover somewhere else—"
Fire bit into Kanari's shoulder, causing her to drop her fire arm and drop Rex. She cried out and gripped her injury, landing harshly on the ground. Pain seared her senses, the loud noises of the battle dulling into the background.
Somewhere, among the dulled, blurring noises, she heard her name being called.
And just as quickly as the pain had flared up, it stopped, leaving her entire arm cold and numb with barely the slightest tingling in her fingertips. Kanari sat up, her vision flaring in and out for a moment before it finally focused on the chaotic scene before her.
"Kanari!" It was Rex's gruff voice, unnervingly pained and winded. "Kanari get up!"
She stood, chunks of rock biting her skin. The rifle was heavy in her hand as she lifted it and fired at the flux of Lizards across from her.
A laser hit the wall ahead of her, barely missing the side of her head as she struggle to keep her balance and dodge the attack.
An attack from behind.
More red and white laser fire pelted into the backs of the group as Kirzmin Lizards came in from other halls and passages.
"They've come from behind us!" Silas focused his aim on the enemies behind them. Bodies were beginning to pile the small hall, crowding on what little space was left.
Silas could see that they were being pushed back, the number Lizards that had originally been in front of them dwindling get quickly.
"We'll keep them back sir! The rest of you keep moving forward!" Silas yelled over the noise. "Dice!"
"Yes sir!" Dice came up beside the sergeant, changing the ammo on the blaster.
"Our group is going to try and fend off the Lizards while you try to lead the Captain and—"
"Absolutely not." Rex's firm voice came over their shared comm system.
"But sir—"
"Focus on getting Generals Jorani and Skywalker out first, then the Commanders."
"With all due respect sir—" Salis almost dropped his guard and turned to look at Rex.
"That is an order sergeant." Rex's trigger finger was beginning to cramp up, the charge running low on his pistol.
"The front is clear sir!" Edger called out.
The group was pushed towards the mouth of another room as Lizards pushed their assault on the clones and Jedi.
"We can't go anywhere else!" Kiki was close to dropping. Blood rushed in her ears and the dim sights before her swayed. The Force hurled warning signs and messages at her—many of which weren't even related to the battle.
Her stress was rising, blood pressure was rising, heart rate was rising.
Her baby was growing agitated at the increase in negative emotions and physical strains. Kiki's body was fighting to stand upright and pump even amounts of blood through her body—including to her child.
Kiki's right hand cramped, pain shooting through the length of her arm. Her lightsaber dropped to the dusty ground with a barely-heard clatter.
"General!"
Sharp pains attacked her stomach. Kiki's head spun, her leg muscles refusing to keep her standing.
The baby's agitation grew.
"General Jorani!"
She could barely here her name being called.
"The front is clear!" A clone yelled, supporting Marik over a shoulder as he slowly moved backward. Directly behind him was a room that had its door blown out in the firefight.
They had no choice but to go in.
The press of Lizards now in front of the group was forcing them to back slowly into the tight space.
"We'll be trapped if we're backed into there!" Anakin yelled above the noise. His blue lightsaber hummed frantically as he deflected blaster bolts.
"We've got nowhere else to go, sir!" Rex said.
The room directly behind the group was shrouded in darkness, but the edges where the walls and floor met were visible. Dark water stains marred the lower halves of the room.
Rex could feel his adrenaline running thin as his reloaded another clip into his pistols. Last ones. He wouldn't have enough to take out the Lizards before them, not with his aim faltering the way it was.
His mind reeled as he struggled to keep track of the battle and find a more pleasurable way out of their dilemma.
They had no choice but to enter the room. They'd have no way of escaping, but the door was capable of being jammed shut. That would buy them some time to restock on what they could and try the long-distance comms.
"Everyone, in the room now!" His rearview cameras picked up movement behind him; Ridge was the first to enter the dark room, half-dragging, half-supporting Marik on his should as he struggled to support the other's weight. Ahsoka and Danda were close behind them, frantically batting away red lasers as they almost shoved a few others into the room.
General Jorani hobbled in, gripping her stomach and being supported by Jax.
"Kanari! Get going!" Rex aimed his fire at the Lizards aiming at her.
"Not until you get in!" Steely determination was fixed in her eyes as she continued to fire her rifle with one hand. "You have more injuries than I do—"
"If it makes you feel better, I'll cover both of you. With all due respect sir, get your shebs in there!" Salis forced his way to the front of the fray, the heavy pack of grenades slung over one arm. "You have five seconds!" His thumb hovered over the red detonation button for just a moment before he pressed.
The all-too-familiar sound of a grenade ticking down rang in Rex's ears, his first instinct to jump for cover. An arm wrapped around his waist, roughly jerking him backward.
The chimes from the grenade rose in pitch as it grew closer to blowing. Salis pulled another one out of the pack, throwing the first into the swarm of Lizards.
Rex and Kanari made it in through the doorway, Marik struggling to close the door with what little energy he had.
Salis was still outside.
"Salis! Get out of there!" Rex yelled, lunging forward again against his better judgment.
He didn't answer, instead tossing his second grenade into the fray. He fired his blaster haphazardly into the body of Kirzmin Lizards.
The heavy door was closing.
Salis was still on the outside.
A small ball rolled into the half-meter wide space between the door and the wall. The flashing red light on it indicated it was ready to blow.
Grenade.
Rex was painfully aware of the world around him slowing down, every small detail jumping out at him. Salis' dirty, off-white armor stood out sharply against the dark green mass of Lizards swarming around him. Amazingly, he stood standing against the rush of claws and tails around him, a second blaster firing into the bodies.
His HUD picked up movement behind him; Anakin was dropping to the ground, Kiki right beside him. Kanari was trying desperately to pull him back from the grenade ready to blow, tripping over rocks on the ground.
And Marik was in front of him, his fingers closing around the ball.
Rex's ears flooded with noise, his sense momentarily overwhelmed with warning signs; exhaustion, pain, blinding dizziness clogged his judgment. Images overlapped in front of him. Laser fire was flooding in heavily in through the space in the doorway. Marik's arm was in the air, the gray grenade barely leaving his finger tips.
Somewhere in the hall, bright orange fire exploded and caught onto the surrounding bodies. There was hissing and screaming, and it all grated against Rex's ears.
And there was rumbling. The ground shook and dust and stones the size of his head crashed down from the ceiling.
Kanari yanked harder, but a heavy feeling of foreboding fell over Rex's stomach.
The second grenade had yet to blow. It was almost through the door, the plumes of orange fire reaching across the small space of the dirt halls.
Rex was aware of screaming; it came from him, protesting Kanari's forceful grip on his arm and trying to tell Marik to move out of the way before the bomb blew. Her equally loud yelling overlapped with roaring flames that overtook the bodies of Kirzmin Lizards, acrid black smoke rising from the burning bodies.
Boom.
Rex's vision flooded with darkness, but he was aware of pebbles and then rocks pelting his armor. He fell to the ground, his helmet sensors alerting him of every bit of his surroundings. Bodies were thrown by the force of the grenade, cries of pain shooting out through the darkness.
Then, it all stopped.
Rex could only hear the sound of his breathing, adrenaline buzzing through his whole body and leaving a tingling sensation in his finger tips. He couldn't feel anything.
There was a groan somewhere in front of him, then a cough as dust settled and the ringing in his ears subsided. The tingling in his fingertips receded as adrenaline faded, pain starting to form itself all over his body.
"Rex? Rex, where are you?" It was Kanari's voice, coming from directly in front of him. Her hands brushed against the ground by his head before finally resting on his helmet. "Rex!"
Rex was amazed his voice even still worked. "Kanari…" His spine wasn't broken, the pain running through his body telling the Captain that much. He braced himself and lifted onto his elbows, dust falling from his stomach.
Pain exploded from his right foot, knocking wind out of his chest. Rex bit his lip to keep from crying out.
"Rex, don't move!" Kanari pressed a firm hand into his shoulder, forcing him back onto the ground. She wove her way through fallen boulders, struggling to remove the object that pinned Rex down.
A rock about as large as her forearm rested on Rex's ankle, twisting his foot into an awkward position and holding it pinned to the ground. A long fracture ran up the length of his boot, the armor almost splitting in two.
Kanari wedged her fingers under the rock, shifting the heavy boulder but not lifting it enough to completely move it off. The edges of panic began settling in her stomach as she tried lifting the rock again. She looked around in the dark, not seeing anyone else moving.
"Hold on Rex," she said with a slight tremor. Her earlier adrenaline spike was quickly fading, leaving her limbs feeling jittery and weak. "Is anyone else alright?" She stumbled clumsily over more rocks, her legs ready to give way from under her.
Movement in the corner caught her eye, and it was only then that Kanari realized how much damage had been done by the grenades. The room the group had run into had been five meters long, three meters wide. More than half that space was taken up with debris. The ceiling had caved in at the front of the room, heavy stones as big as Kanari piled up as high as the walls. Near the top, she could see a black, rusty corner, partially bent out of shape.
The door.
They were trapped inside.
There was movement again to Kanari's left. Kiki was stirring, small pebbles and clouds of dust falling from her clothing. She gripped her stomach in one hand as she braced herself on all fours. She shut her eyes for a moment against a sudden wave of nausea, gripping her stomach even tighter. Footsteps rang closer and closer in her ears until Kanari was in front of her and speaking rapidly in Verinese.
The words refused to form coherent sentences in Kiki's mind; one sound jumbled into the next with no hope of being figured out. She lifted her head up to try to get Kanari to slow down, but saw something that made her forget her discomfort—Marik, sitting upright against the wall, and not moving.
Kiki was on her feet and rushing to him before she knew what she was doing. With shaking hands, she pulled his helmet off of his head, cupping his face and searching for signs of life.
"Marik? Marik, can you hear me?" Her mind jumped back to when the grenades blew. She remembered seeing Marik nearest the door as he threw a grenade back out into the hall. "Marik…" She couldn't feel his breath on her fingers.
His eyes fluttered open, pupils dilating in the darkness. He coughed and groaned, pulling his hand away from her face. "G-General…" He coughed again, another groan coming out. "My a-arm…"
Kiki carefully pressed her hands on his chest to prevent further movement. "Marik, can you feel your legs?" She remembered the same routine Cord would go through to check if any of the men had spinal cord injuries.
"Y-Yes…" Marik's breathing grew more and more erratic as his pain spiked. "M-My arm…"
Kiki cast a glance down to his right arm, her hand immediately flying up to cover her mouth. Bile rose and fell in her throat as she looked at the gruesome sight of Marik's arm—most of it.
"What…what happened…" Marik was quickly regaining consciousness; his eyes frantically looked around in the dark. "My arm!"
Kiki desperately tried to keep him from catching sight of his mangled arm. The armor and undersuit were completely gone, torn skin revealing shattered bone. It was burned and ripped and barely held the image of an arm.
Marik was screaming now, air ripping in and out of his lungs as the pain flared through his arm and his entire body.
"Marik, stop moving! You'll make it worse." Kiki made s split second decision and pressed her hand against Marik's eyes just as Kanari rushed to them with a pain killer. She flooded Marik's mind with calm feelings in the Force, watching as he went slack against the wall.
"What did you do?" Kanari asked, pressing two fingers against his neck. The reaction was automatic; she didn't know if he still had a pulse.
"I used the Force to knock him out—" Kiki gasped and clutched her stomach. Warnings slammed her in the Force, the pain growing and becoming more prominent.
With shaking hands, Kiki rubbed her palm against her inner thigh. A cold, terrible fear coursed through her veins and overturned her stomach.
Blood. She was hemorrhaging.
Kiki was losing her baby.
And so, the group, in yet another futile attempt to escape the tunnels, gets trapped in a room with ever-shrinking chances of survival.
The next chapter should be out shortly, especially considering vacation is coming up soon.
