Five Times
The Second: A Keldabe Kiss.
Chaos reigned on the battlefield, and the roar of its fury drowned out all other noise. They were pinned down behind an overturned AT-TE, the legs of the thing sticking up in crazy, broken angles. Red blasterfire tore through the air overhead, darted between the bits of cover men took shelter behind. A shorn off section of wall served as cover for three more clones, each of them with their own blasters raised over the lip of the rubble, returning red bolts with blue. Others, one here, one there, leaned out behind corners of buildings.
Hunched down behind the AT-TE, Gree was huddled forward, and Barriss could see his body moving, flinching, jerking slightly, as he vehemently argued with someone on the other end of the comm channel. His hand twitched slightly, making a cutting motion. He shook his blaster once.
Smoke clogged the air. Vulture droids on a strafing run screamed through the sky overhead, and Barriss moved low, beating away a blast that would have struck their cover. The payload was heavy enough to send her staggering backward, the deflected shot tearing up the duracrete street instead. Her arms ached from the force of it, and she flicked off her lightsaber for a moment to flex her arms and hands, easing away the pain as she crouched behind the AT-TE.
Gree's voice was hard when it came through the speakers of his helmet. "Rest of them are too far off to get here in time. We're on our own." He hefted his blaster, gauntleted fingers flexing around it more tightly.
She looked from Gree to the others and back again. They'd lost members of their unit once behind enemy lines. There were little more than a handful left, hiding behind rubble and trying to hold out against the onslaught.
She was their leader; unable to save all of them, the only option left was to save what remained. Looking to the sky, there were more vulture droids visible beyond the oily black smoke. They needed an exit. Further back and they'd run into the shifting enemy line. The only other way was forward, to regroup with Master Unduli and the main force.
Gree would try to prohibit her from doing something impulsive. She gave him a grim smile as he checked the charge on his blaster's power cell, preparing to join in the return fire. She set her hand heavily on his shoulder, hard enough to capture his attention. He turned towards her at the contact, and she quickly bumped her forehead against his helmet, not too hard, but hard enough to startle him.
She could not see his face through the black slit of his helmet, but she could imagine his surprise, his wide eyes and open mouth. "Be prepared to cover me. I will open a path. You will know when. Then move quickly."
The blue fire of her lightsaber cast an eerie light once ignited. It did not reflect off the matte black of his vision sensors.
He called her name, angrily. "Barriss!"
But she was gone, long robes flickering behind her as she disappeared into the haze of smoke.
Quasi-cliffhanger?
A "Keldabe Kiss" is a head-butt. Only the Mandalorians would consider whacking their heads together romantic. Gotta love it.
~Queen