Chapter 21

As you are all obviously aware, I have been struggling with a severe case of writer's block! Hopefully we are back to normal now. Here is the next chapter, back to Obi-Wan (: I apologize for how long it's taken.

"Cody!" Obi-Wan shouted, already out of breath from the smoke and rapid fighting, "Get your men over on the left side!"

There was something about the raw energy of battle—something that made a person keep going, even after they felt like they were about to drop dead from exhaustion. It was more than fighting for one's life. It was everyone around you, all doing the same, that gave them a collective unity even when you could shout at the top of your lungs and have no idea if the others had heard you or not.

Obi-Wan grabbed his lightsaber out of midair and slashed behind him at two security droids without even looking at them, whirling around to face a horde of hover drones flying straight toward him. He was heaving for breath and so covered in sweat, he felt like he was swimming in his robes instead of wearing them.

Out of the corner of his eye, he could see flashes of black and white as Cody heeded his order and drove as many men as he could find toward the left of their station. Civil refugees were not the only commodity they were protecting behind the battle lines.

The eleven storehouses, where the people were currently lying low, also housed additional war machines that should have been used already. What was the use of having tanks if there was no one to drive them? He was going to kill Anakin, when he finally showed up. If he ever did!

Leaping up onto the top of one of the drones, like he'd seen some Jedi do with buzz droids, he quickly realized that the upward-facing laser cannons on the drones made that a bad idea. He stuck his saber downward, fizzling out the circuits of the one he was standing on, and they both plummeted to the ground, out of the reach of the laser fire.

Flipping backward, he found that, rather than the swampy ground, he'd landed on a huge, slimy, root-like thing. It threw him off balance for a second and he almost twisted his ankle jumping off, before ducking to avoid a flurry of blasts with his saber.

It was only when the root started moving that he remembered something: there weren't any trees around. It wasn't a root; it was alive! It burrowed down into the muck, splattering algae everywhere and coating Obi-Wan with it as he struggled to keep his eyes on the onslaught of droids at the same time. Laser bolts flew past in a merciless attack, and he felt one graze his cheek before he was able to get a breath in between the rounds of shot.

Suddenly, "DUCK!" Cody screamed at him from an unknown location. Somehow he just knew it was directed at him. He flung himself at the clone soldier directly behind him and they landed on the ground with a squelching noise. A huge ion cannon blast flew directly overhead, hitting their barricade with a "BOOM!" Chunks of concrete came crashing to the ground as smoke struggled to clear in the windless air and the whining sound of the cannon's recharge filled it, reaching the ears of the Republic army.

Obi-Wan's voice cracked in the dusty air. "Fall back! Cody, order your men to fall back!"

He turned, dejected, to follow his own order as the clone he'd saved picked himself out of the mud beside him. He took two steps and was suddenly faced with the giant, eyeless head of the root that had moved! His eyes widened. He'd seen some crazy things in his travels with Qui-Gon, and even more with Anakin, but this had to trump all.

The huge, mucky-green thing in front of him—was an earthworm.

"How can you be an earthworm?" he found himself stupidly yelling at it. They were retreating from a Separatist ion cannon that had just demolished all their defenses. This was not the time to be encountering strange new forms of alien life!

The head stared down at him and he could hear the clanking of metal joints approaching from behind. Even now, lasers whizzed past him. Any one of them could be the last one he'd ever see. And then—

The head moved away from them! It turned and burrowed back into the ground, back toward their fort and the warehouses the civilians were hiding in. Obi-Wan almost laughed at his foolishness. He'd assumed the side facing them was the worm's front half. But worms didn't have a front or back, because they don't have eyes. It was moving that way all along—since it had moved from under his foot a second ago. But—

He and the clone exchanged a glance. "That means its tail—"

"Is right underneath us!"

"SPLHICK!" Both men let out a yell as the huge, slippery, twisting tail end of the worm suddenly emerged from the soil directly beneath them. Obi-Wan clung to instinct and simply grabbed on, gripping the elastic flesh in handfuls as best he could, and trusting the clone to do the same. All his breath went out of him as they were lifted straight into the air, a perfect target for all the droids behind them, and suddenly plunged toward the ground below.

"Get off!" he shouted, trying to let go, grab the clone, and grip the Force to help him land in a safe area as the worm slithered into a two-meter wide tunnel directly below them.

They were too late. Smacked full-body with the slimy tail, they were suddenly suspended in thin air as the rest of the worm disappeared.

"ARGHG!" a brief wave of the Force broke their fall, but they were still slung unceremoniously against the chunks of dirt along the sides of the hole. The clone frantically grasped for (actual) roots and dirt to haul himself up with, and Obi-Wan did the same, stabilizing himself before giving a final push with the Force to catapult himself back up onto solid ground. He flung himself against the edge of the tunnel to give a hand to the clone, who accepted it and followed quickly behind him out of the tunnel, shooting at the droids behind them while Obi-Wan deflected blaster shots with his saber.

They were joined by more clones in retreat. Obi-Wan forced himself not to feel guilty as the stares of defeat already began to direct themselves toward him. This was just too much. They didn't have a choice. The important thing was to protect the civilians who didn't deserve to be here.

"You know, I could really use some help!" he silently petitioned, forcing his way through the dense forest of gnarly trees back to the fort. "Lots of help. Oh, and could you throw in a gunner for that tank that's sitting uselessly in the warehouse right now?!"

Wet branches whipped across his face and arms as he ploughed through, making a path with his saber.

It took two hours of running before they finally made it all the way back and huddled, unsure of what would come next, deep inside the fort.

Obi-Wan leaned his head back against the cold stone wall, trying to get his breath before the inevitable: the direct attack that would come on them within the hour.

He knew he should be drawing up a strategy. Displaying some energy that would rouse the troops. There was a slight problem, though—he didn't have it.

The General sighed, rubbing his eyes with his hand. Why couldn't anyone figure out a way to end this war?!

"Sir," Cody's voice was right in front of him. Obi-Wan looked up. The soldier had his helmet removed and looked as exhausted as he was, but his face told him he brought good news. "Sir, reinforcements have arrived from Coruscant!"

"Just in time!" Obi-Wan's face broke into a grin. "I was beginning to think they'd forgotten about us!" He got to his feet and the two men rushed outside to see the ships arriving. There were several small space-fighters and a huge airborne shuttle.

He raised an eyebrow. "An Airborne Legion? I thought we could at least count on not having any space battles!"

"I'm as surprised as you are, General," Cody replied, counting the fighters. "Looks like there's a dozen or so. I guess we can use all the help we've got."

"I suppose you're right," Obi-Wan agreed slowly. "But what do we use the shuttle for? It's not much more than a giant target on a marsh planet like Machibo."

He quickly went forward as the shuttle attempted to land in the wet grass, crushing several trees in the process and making Obi-Wan cringe at the thought of trying to get it back in the air later. "What in the galaxy were the Jedi thinking?"

"Beats me, Sir!"

The main gangplank lowered and they both stepped toward it, Obi-Wan fully expecting to see Anakin coming down to meet them and offer some explanation. Instead, he was surprised to see a female Jedi Master he didn't recognize, with dark purple skin and orange-colored eyes, without much in the way of hair.

"Hi, there, Kenobi!" she called to him cheerfully, and he tried to remember who she was, without much success. "I've brought the legion you needed!"

"Uh," he managed, still perplexed, "are we planning on being attacked in the upper atmosphere?"

She got a blank look, then shrugged. "I don't know!" she replied, looking unbothered by the question.

Obi-Wan opened his mouth, trying to say how weird this was but not knowing how, since there had to be a legitimate reason for the shuttle being here, right? "Are—these—all that the hangars could spare?"

"We—ell," she explained slowly, "I'm honestly, really, not sure about that, exactly; but I do know that none of the other Jedi could be spared. That's why good old me is here." She turned her head slightly to the side, narrowing her eyes at him. "You don't recognize me, do you?"

"I'm—sure we've—you know, passed each other in the hallways on occasion," he quickly remediated, or attempted to. "General—?"

"Orangrave," she answered with a sigh, her tall frame slumping a little. "Jael Orangrave. And I'm not a General. Or at least I don't think I am—If you make an emergency substitute for another general, does that make you a temporary one? I haven't been into battle much," she added to the question.

"That much is clear," Obi-Wan thought, still totally flabbergasted by the strange situation. "Master Orangrave, do you have any gunmen aboard that space fleet?" his mind drifted to that spare tank they still didn't have anyone to command.

"Um," she stopped for a moment, grinning. "Let me check!" She ran back inside a few steps, then shouted something to another person inside, probably a clone commando. Then she ran right back out, her face lit up like a little kid who was thrilled to be a messenger with an important piece of information. "He said no, because this Legion is strictly for upper-atmosphere combat engagement."

The hint of amusement he'd had on his face dropped like a light. "You brought the wrong Legion!" he shouted, finally realizing what was going on.

She looked hurt. "I didn't know! Master Windu just said to go!"

"Do you realize that you've just possibly compromised thousands of lives? And a stakehold in the entire war? That shuttle could take weeks to get out of the mud—I thought, when you landed, that you had a plan for all this!"

"I didn't know!" she shouted back, angrily. "Nobody told me what I was supposed to bring with me!"

Obi-Wan felt his mouth fall open, something that didn't happen to him very often. "How did you even GET this entire Legion clearance to take off!"

"I'm a Jedi Master, the same as yourself, Obi-Wan Kenobi!"

"And how do you even know my name?!"

"I know everyone!"

"Well, I don't know who you are!" he barked. "For all I know, you aren't even a Jedi. You're a Separatist impostor!"

Suddenly, a lightsaber ignited and whistled past his head, and he realized it was his own that had been manipulated by the Force.

"I KNOW you don't know me," she yelled, with pain threading her voice, "but grab your lightsaber and put it back in your pocket, Kenobi, because even though you'd never care, I've known your name since you were twelve!"

She stormed back into the ship, leaving Obi-Wan with his lightsaber in one hand, and pulling his hair out with the other. Even Cody looked bewildered.

As Master Orangrave left, the clone Commando made an appearance on the same gangplank. He was dressed in a flight suit, very smart-looking. Upon seeing Obi-Wan and Cody he saluted, grimacing to indicate he realized their confusion. "Commander Bright, Sirs." he lowered his hand, and glanced around at his swampy surroundings with an awkward look on his face. "Ah—permission to begin forming battle strategies, Sir?"

Obi-Wan shook his head hopelessly. "Permission granted," he allowed, with a dismissive wave of his hand. The two clone commandos took off for the warehouse, talking between themselves.

The Jedi Master craned his neck back up at the shuttle, which was sinking deeper into the muddy ground by the minute. Then he looked back at the commandos, and made up his mind.

They were right. All that could be done now was to formulate the best battle strategy possible before the drones arrived. Maybe they were done for, but maybe they could hold them off long enough to get the shuttle out of the mud and get some real reinforcements. There wasn't much chance of it, but it was better than giving up and leaving this planet to destruction.

He turned and began to follow them, only two orders of business on his mind. Make a reasonable battle plan, and keep the crazy Master Orangrave from completely botching it up.

Replies to Reviewers:

.5851: I know, right? Originally it was supposed to be Jael/Mace romance, but that just doesn't work (-8 Not sure if Anakin will live to find out, though. We'll have to see on that one!

Scottusa1: Very weird friend. Not by Mace's choice, either!

ErinKenobi2893: Yes, he is usually adorable! Not today though!