One by One
Serin was fighting Joikaw and Hirhaish as he tried to desperately reach the cages to release those that were still being locked up in them, one by one. The two Sith, who were clearly a part of the Force Born group, were powerful but they were still no match for the Jedi Knight's flexibility and quick-witted moves.
"What exactly do you plan on achieving by continuing to fight?" Joikaw taunted as he could see the Jedi was getting tired from the extensive exertion.
Serin stared back with a stoic expression, "I could ask you the same question," he replied as he kicked Hirhaish in the jaw and then blocked a strike from Joikaw's double-bladed lightsaber.
"Someone ought to have taught you manners Jedi," Hirhaish scoffed as he spat saliva laced with his blood at Serin's boots. Then the onslaught became even more fast-paced and Serin tried to keep up when suddenly he felt a searing pain shoot through his right eye. The Jedi Knight gasped in pain as he dropped to one knee and clutched his right eye in his hands as his lightsabers fell to the ground. Then everything went black as he felt a sharp pain hit him in the right shoulder.
"He's stunned," Joikaw stated, "Our Sniper is doing a good job, anyways let's get this one into a cage," he added as he went to bend down to grab the Jedi Knight's arms to start dragging him towards a cage when he was suddenly pushed away by a surge of Force power.
Master Ferus Olin had been watching his former Padawan fight out of the corner of his eye and was now approaching the two Sith who had somehow managed to best Serin.
"Leave him!" Ferus yelled in warning over the battle.
"Or what?" Joikaw asked as a sneer appeared on his face.
"Or you will have me to deal with," Ferus threatened as he swung his lightsaber around in a complicated maneuver that was supposed to intimidate the two Sith.
"Who are you? To think that you are better than us?" Hirhaish demanded in torment.
"Ferus Olin, maybe you've heard of me," the Jedi Knight responded as he leapt forward to meet them. Whilst he kept the two Sith distracted, Raven dragged Serin away from any further danger towards the back of their lines where a Jedi Healer was waiting to try and stabilise the injured Jedi Knight. Then Raven returned to the battle quickly so that they had a higher chance of winning this dismal battle.
"Ohhh Kai," Aqiri cooed as she approached the Jedi Padawan through the crowd of Sith until she came to a stop face to face with her old friend.
"Naiya," Kai mumbled, "Please, you must see reason?" he asked in a pleading tone.
Aqiri scowled heavily at the sound of the name, "I already told you that little helpless Padawan is long gone," she growled.
Kai shook his head slightly, "No, she isn't. You know that."
Then the Force Born member pushed Kai backwards towards the edge of the landing platform with the Force. The Jedi Padawan slipped over the edge and then clung to the durasteel for dear life as he tried to pull himself back up.
"Oh poor, poor Kai," Aqiri taunted as she stared at him over the edge and laughed as he tried several times to unsuccessfully pull himself back up, "You know you never did take Master Karti's advice, he always did say that you needed to work on your strength," she said as she taunted him further.
"Don't talk about my Master like that," Kai growled as he started to get angry.
Aqiri smirked in amusement as she stood on his fingers which were slowly slipping off one by one when suddenly someone collided with the Sith, knocking her to the floor abruptly. Then Kayli appeared over the edge, "Need some help Snow-top," she offered a hand for Kai to grab which he took gratefully. Next thing he knew he was back on his feet on the landing platform to find Aqiri still had not gotten back up onto her feet.
"What did you do to her?" Kai asked worriedly.
"Nothing much really, she must have knocked her head on the durasteel flooring pretty hard to get knocked out like a light," Kayli answered with a slight shrug of her shoulders, "Well come on Snow-top, we should get back to fighting."
Kai nodded as they entered the thick of the battle once again and the Jedi Padawan started to realise that the newcomer was growing on him as well as the nickname.
Meanwhile, up on the cliff, Mia was watching the battle unfold below on the landing platform through her macro-binoculars. Unfortunately, because of the mess of the battle, she was not able to assist very much without accidentally hitting one of the Jedi. So far the Agent had mainly been throwing electromagnetic pulse grenades at the droids as that was dealing the most damage at the moment and the more of them she could put out of action the easier it would be for the Jedi to fight and hopefully win. Then suddenly Mia felt the butt of a rifle stick into her back and she froze as she slowly raised her hands above her head.
"Turn around," a harsh and cold voice ordered from directly behind her which she obeyed slowly.
Mia was surprised to find a young man who couldn't have been much older than Raven standing behind her in a charcoal uniform and a sniper rifle still focused on her.
"Who are you?" the man demanded.
"Republic SIS Agent Misa Highrock," Mia answered truthfully, lying would not accomplish anything except being shot, "Who are you? You're obviously not a Sith," she asked calmly.
The man scoffed, "No, of course not but I am not telling you who I am Agent."
"Well, how do you know that I am not lying about who I am?" Mia pointed out, trying to keep him talking for as long as possible so that she could come up with a way to get out of this mess.
"I have studied the uniform of the Republic SIS Agency," the man explained swiftly.
"Then that means that you are an Agent, no doubt for the Imperial SIS Agency," Mia concluded and then she glanced at his badge briefly, "Agent Lazarn Brightvale," she mumbled quietly under her breath.
"What did you just say?" Lazarn demanded as he shoved the butt of his rifle into her chest.
"Nothing," Mia lied quickly, "I am sure that you are aware of how useless sniper rifles are when fighting in close quarters," she added.
"It doesn't matter, I never miss a shot," Lazarn stated with a hint of overconfidence.
Mia stayed quiet for a moment and then suddenly swung her foot up and swiftly kicked the other Agent in the jaw. This move threw Lazarn off his guard as he dropped his rifle and then raised his arm to block a punch that Mia had aimed at his gut. He was so busy trying to block all the kicks and punches that were being thrown at him that he couldn't pick his rifle back up but as he was about to strike with his Vibroknife Mia grabbed his right wrist. However, when he thought that she was about to stab him with her own blade Lazarn caught her wrist in his left hand but she released her thumb off the button of a grenade and dropped it close to the left side of his face. Searing pain followed as he felt the entire left side of his face burn and almost shatter from the explosion. Mia had just managed to avoid the blast as she had leapt away from her opponent.
"Retreat!" the order came through Lazarn's comlink which was in his right ear and luckily enough avoided damage from the explosion.
"Yes sir," he replied as he ran towards the ship he had arrived on with his arsenal. Mia followed quickly with another grenade hoping to finish him off before the Imperial Agent could cause any more trouble for the Republic.
Meanwhile, below on the landing platform Raven had seen the explosion that had gone off close to where he knew Mia was positioned.
"Mia!" the Jedi Knight yelled as he ran towards the edge of the landing platform, building up speed with the Force and taking a massive leap across the gap between the platform and the cliff opposite him. Raven rolled as he landed heavily on the opposite cliff and then jumped straight back to his feet as he ran up to where Mia was to make sure she was okay. As he got closer he began to worry about the worst outcomes, maybe she hadn't been able to throw the grenade quickly enough and had blown herself up in the process.
Mia was close behind the Imperial Agent who was retreating as quickly as he could with half a face that would be falling apart at that moment. However, as she ran around a massive rock Mia looked up to see the Agent aiming his sniper rifle at her. Next moment everything went black as she fell to the ground unconscious before she could dodge out of the way.
"MIA!" Raven yelled as he ran towards where he could sense her presence and then he found her on the ground unconscious. The Jedi Knight quickly checked for a pulse and sighed in relief when he found it but then he looked up to see the ship flying away.
"Thank goodness you're okay," Raven whispered in relief as he picked her up, one arm under her knees and the other under her shoulders. The Jedi Knight began to walk back towards where her weapons were still sitting, most of which had been unused during the battle. Raven looked up to the sky and watched the Sith retreat on their ships, unfortunately with all the Jedi that had been put in the cages.
"They're retreating?" Raven asked in complete confusion to no one in particular.
Meanwhile of the Star Destroyer, Darth Xaeven had called for the retreat upon finding out that the Force Born on the surface had successfully captured the Rogue Jedi as well as the Jedi guards. However, when he discovered that two of the Star Destroyers had been destroyed and were now falling through the atmosphere of the planet below the First Son decided to make a drastic decision to call for a retreat. The Sith Army numbers had been dropping dramatically on the surface below and the X5-S9s had gone down from twenty-five to twelve which were dangerously low numbers. Darth Xaeven was positive that when he delivered his report to the Sith Empress that she would agree that he had made the right call if not for anything but the surety of the safety of her precious Force Born.
"Admiral, as soon as those ships are on board get us into Hyperspace," Darth Xaeven ordered as he walked onto the bridge.
"Yes, Darth Xaeven," Admiral Tarkin responded as he started ordering the officers around him to get ready the ship ready to jump into hyperspace.
"The ships are on board sir," a Naval Officer informed the Admiral.
"Very good, now get us out of here before the Jedi have a chance to wipe us out completely," Admiral Tarkin ordered swiftly and after a few moments they could see nothing but hyperspace lines outside the viewport.