Author's note: Cool, more reviews! Thanks again.
"Call Commander Bly and ask for my co-ordinates", Aayla said as calmly as she could while she ran down the dark corridor, "We can still achieve the objective".
She dared a glance behind her and saw her pursuers charging after her. Grievous and his MagnaGuards, Grievous in lead. The super battle droids had apparently been left far behind.
For the last few hundred meters of twisting corridors, they had been hot on her heels. The Force granted her the speed she needed to match their hydraulic-powered legs, but unlike her they did not slow on corners. Apparently, both Grievous and his elites had magnetized feet, for they leapt onto the walls and clambered over them with ease, not even slowing down and in fact gaining ground as they leapt after her.
They were gaining on her.
As she kept her eyes on them, she saw the General reach into his flapping cloak and produce two lightsabers. One in each hand, he ignited them, filling the dingy corridor with green and blue shimmering light.
She heard Master Windu shout something down the commlink, something to do with Grievous. But she had no time to answer, for out of the corner of her eye she saw Grievous take a few massive, loping strides and raise a blade.
The Force guided her actions, and she dropped and rolled, hitting the floor hard and holding her lightsaber out from her body so as not to impale herself. The hand holding her commlink was held up, exposed as she went down. It exploded in sparks as Grievous' blade plunged into it, narrowly avoiding maiming her hand. Thanking the Force internally, she leapt back to her feet and ran again, this time not daring to look back.
Instead, she extended one hand and used the Force to blast the cyborg and his warriors, intending to hurl them over. But even as she did, she realized it was ineffectual, striking the metallic marauders but their magnetic feet stabilizing them, holding them up for no more than a second as they regained their balance and then leapt forwards.
The fight for survival Aayla was embroiled in was not in fear for her own life. It was in fear for failing the Republic and failing the mission. But it was also in fear of Grievous butchering her and taking her saber, the fear of her death as another mark in Grievous' sickening tally of Jedi he had slain. She could not allow him to use her blade to slice up other Jedi when she was dead and gone, to have him boast to those that would listen how he obtained his "trophy".
Someone was talking quietly into a commlink, possibly Grievous giving an order to someone or something. She ran on, turning around another corner only to despair at yet another expanse of corridor before her. She couldn't keep on like this. Even with the Force to help her, her lungs were pounding and her legs screaming with pain.
From a door to the right there was a blur of movement. Three bronze wheels rolled into the room and whirled to face Aayla in one fluid movement. Suddenly, they began to unfold, three rickety legs propping a heavy body up, an angular collection of wires and metal plates. A curved shell of metal with a small, wicked looking head thrust forwards from each droid. Two crooked arms with massive twin blasters unslung from each droid to aim at Aayla. A burst of energy, and suddenly each was enfolded in a bubble-shaped deflector shield, capable of reflecting blaster fire, EMP weapons and even Jedi lightsabers.
One of the most feared units of the Separatist army. Droidekas, or destroyer droids. The three killing machines, each with enough firepower to wipe out dozens of clone troopers, opened fire.
The narrow corridor was filled with laser fire. Far too much for her to begin to deflect, but no concern to the massively armoured cyborg and MagnaGuards behind her.
Most Jedi, despite their martial prowess, would have dropped dead in seconds, caught as it was between two evils. But Aayla leapt, allowing the Force to guide her. In the cramped corridor, she passed mere inches above the shields of the droidekas and landed behind them. She kept running, not looking to see the effects of her ruse.
A sharp shout of anger came from behind her, followed by clanging and clattering. Probing for a moment with the Force, Aayla could see Grievous and his guards screeching to a halt before the droidekas. Agile and limber as they were, they were too large to squeeze through like Aayla had done.
Aayla sprinted on as a clicking and whirring noise informed her the droidekas had curled up to allow their General through. She wasted no time. Ahead of her; a large window. She had no idea how far off the ground floor was. But she had no choice. It was enough.
She leapt and smashed through it in a splinter of transparisteel. The hard, rocky floor was at least two hundred meters below her. The facility was evidently on some kind of drastic slope. But she would survive the fall.
The Force screamed at her to look behind her, and she saw Grievous and the MagnaGuards leap after her, equally unconcerned about the height of the plunge, their cloaks snapping in the wind. In mid-air, Grievous twirled his sabers at the Jedi, promising death.
But while the droids had the advantage on cold steel flooring, there was no magnetism to save them here. As together they fell to the earth, Aayla extended both palms towards them and Force-pushed them as powerfully as she could.
Grievous and his guards were propelled backwards, slamming into the side of the facility with punishing power, buffeting against it as they fell, twisting and rolling in their capes to the floor in an ungainly mess.
Aayla used the Force to control and soften her landing, although the impact still knocked the wind out of her. She hit the ground running however; veering away to the left to escape the ruthless General who she did not doubt would survive the fall intact.
A looming Republic cruiser raised her spirits. She headed left towards it. It was taking off: evidently Bly had already dispatched the troops. Not daring to look back, she headed towards the sea of white clone troopers that foamed towards her.
They drew closer now, two hundred meters or so away. Suddenly, the air was riddled with blaster fire. Cyan bolts shot in Aayla's direction, and red beams were fired from behind her. A droid army behind Aayla had attacked and the clones were returning fire. And Aayla was stuck in the middle of them.
Legs weak from fatigue, she leapt into the air, performing a spin in mid-air and she landed in the midst of the clones, safely out of the crossfire. At last she dared look around, and saw thousands of droids advancing on their position.
There were scrawny battle droids with their blaster rifles, brutal super battle droids with the rapid-firing guns on their wrists, lethal droidekas here and there in the ranks. Four legged spider droids with gleaming red eyes and a singular huge laser cannon swarmed forwards, hoop-wheeled hailfire droids unleashed scores of heat seeking missiles, fearsome crab droids of varying sizes advanced, Trade Federation AAT tanks that hovered almost elegantly above the surface but were murderous in appearance, and then there were the giant Corporate Alliance Tank droids, with crawler tracks that spanned the length of their heavily armoured bodies and an impressive array of cannons at the front of the vehicle.
Grievous was not holding back. He had thrown the might of this army into the fray against the clones in a massive, all-out assault. And Aayla knew this was merely one army of many. The clones returned fire and battle droids dropped and span about in spastic circles as they were shot down by Republic blasters. But the rate of fire from the Separatist army was overwhelming, and even the Republic gunships circling above could not divert the attention of enough droids. As Aayla stepped to the front ranks to deflect laser fire, a pounding shot from an AAT slammed into a few clones and sent a dozen of them flying through the air, burnt and mutilated. The first rank was rapidly disintegrating.
Still, Aayla leapt to the front and began twirling her lightsaber in careful, precise arcs, turning fire away from herself and the clones and back towards the droid army. With hand gestures and blasts of the Force, she did her best to divert as many of the missiles as possible.
Commander Bly appeared beside her, firing his large rifle and gunning down several super battle droids, who were now only two hundred meters away and still advancing.
"We have to retreat!" Bly shouted over the roar of battle to his Jedi General, "We were ambushed! We need to get to a safe landing spot and get the cruiser to land!"
"You were ambushed?" Aayla asked as she twisted about and sent six laser bolts back into the metal guts of a super battle droid with a subtle angle of her blade.
"Yes, we could see only the infantry droids and so we began our attack. Then those tanks showed up, bursting through the side of that hill", he took a break from firing to point briefly at a distant rocky hill, "Probably orchestrated by Grievous himself".
Aayla looked at the hill and a saw a crater and track marks where the tanks had evidently burst out of after being carefully laid in hiding, "The General was busy with me, so he probably had this as a backup plan. Typical Grievous ploy".
"So let's get back to the ship!" Bly's blaster rifle suddenly sparked and burst open as a laser shot slammed into it; without hesitation he chucked it aside and whipped out twin blaster pistols from holsters and continued firing.
Aayla was about to agree when she felt a shift in the Force. A presence, soothing yet demanding. Mace Windu.
She looked up, and her suspicions were confirmed when three huge Republic cruisers appeared from hyperspace almost directly above them. After a moment of trying to process the matter, the droids wheeled about and fled, but not before a salvo of cannon fire rained down on them from the starships. Two thirds were blown apart before the rest managed to limp away.
If the clones were truly normal humans, they might have raised arms and cheered at being saved from certain death. Instead, they snapped to attention and began marching in the direction of the landing cruisers. Aayla however, allowed herself a smile of relief before going to rendezvous with the arriving army.
A dark shape suddenly leapt from the descending starships and landed in front of Aayla with meticulous precision. Master Windu.
"Aayla, are you alright?" Mace asked worriedly.
"Yes, Master Windu. A little tired but uninjured".
"What happened?"
"Grievous and his elite discovered me. I managed to escape".
Mace looked almost surprised, "A feat many unfortunate Jedi were sadly not able to achieve, Aayla. You were skilled to do so. What happened to Grievous"?
"I do not know. The last I saw of him, he took a tumble from that facility", she pointed with her still ignited lightsaber in the direction of the droid foundry.
Master Windu nodded slowly, "He's not dead. He'll probably be giving orders to his troops again already. I shall lead this assault personally. Three more Knights are with me. You'll need to rest, Aayla".
The Jedi shook her head, "You may need my help, Master".
"You are weary and in no condition to fight. We have a med lab on my cruiser. You should go rest and recuperate".
"Master, if Grievous leads the defences, the clones will need as much Jedi direction as possible. He is a ruthless commander".
Mace looked at the distant, retreating droid army, "We have beaten off the first wave. But now the General will rally all of his forces and hurl them against us. You are right, your help will be appreciated", he turned to look at her, "But only if you are up to it".
She smiled, "Always, Master".