Lord Darth Yoda - The Phantom Menace feels is *very* intentional. And don't worry, our opposition isn't the greatest but they aren't incompetent...well...mostly not incompetant. They have huge numbers and they aren't afraid to use them.

Speechbubbleme - Thanks! It kind of helps that I'm prone to joking like Sascha does, so I kind of have experience in writing jokey, playful dialog.

Bodare2 - Yeah, its fun to play around with perspectives, especially when dealing with a culture that hasn't seen much of the Jedi. I like the comparison with the winter war - I wonder if Aurine can be the Jedi version of the great General Mannheim.

A/N - We get a bit of Tiplee in this chapter. She won't be as common a PoV character, but its nice flesh out her character as well. I also had fun writing a character that is a bit more powerful - as we know, Tiplee does become a Jedi Master, so she's pretty strong in the Force.

Anyways, all reviews, follows, and favourites are deeply appreciated as always.

Please enjoy the next chapter

Chapter 26: Prowl

"I've just received the first visual of the force that has been raiding our left flank as we attempt to march to our next objective. As expected there were a number of Ubrorans in camouflage gear, equipped with blaster rifles, but that is something I could deal with. I cannot deal with what they are being led by. I'm not sure if she is a demon or a Jedi Knight. I don't know if our invasion may have pushed her over the edge of sanity. All I know is that she is the most terrifying thing I have seen."

-From the Journal of Pravin Ecalt, Four days in to the Invasion of Ubrora

Jedi Knight Tiplee knelt and scooped up some dirt from the ground. The dirt here was solid, packed thick, and thus perfect for fast travel. Satisfied, she looked up and surveyed her surroundings. The hardest thing about hunting in an unfamiliar place such as this was getting used to how it operated. In nature, there was a chain of command, a natural order of things, and nowhere was this truer than in a forest. But finding out what the natural order was in a new environment was difficult, she knew. It didn't come easy, even to those who used the Force. Sure, if you were about to step on a poisonous thistle-plant, the danger sense of a Jedi Knight would flare, but if you were about to step into the territory of a Crosabarv, one of the few dangerous predators on this planet, there was no Jedi sense for that.

Still, now she was used to the rhythms of this forest, now the forest was like second nature to her. It had been four days since the invasion started and three since she had taken command of the Ubroran Rangers.

Three days since her hunt began.

When she had been a youngling in the Jedi Temple, it had taken the Masters long years to rid her of the typical traits of a Rishati. Native to Darw IV, legend had it that Rishati were related to the Sith, not the dark-side users, but the Sith species, a red-skinned humanoid species that had become synonymous with the dark side cult over the years. Darw IV was a temperate world, covered with forests, and inhabited by an array of predators of every size and description. Some scientists said that the planet was as much a testament to the phrase 'survival of the fittest' as any planet in the known galaxy. Off-world visitors to Darw IV were often jokingly referred to as 'lunch' and if they went into the forests without being prepared and accompanied by skilled guides, they often became just that. Darw IV might have become civilized, but there was no taming the wildlife of the planet.

The Rishati, her species, had evolved and thrived in these harshest of conditions, producing a huge amount of difference in appearance across her species; she even looked nothing like her twin sister Tiplar, even though they were genetically almost identical. What united Rishati as a species was that they all had access to outstanding physical senses, amongst the most sensitive of any species in the galaxy. The truth was, as medium-sized pack hunters, Rishati needed such senses just to survive on Darw IV.

But those senses came at a cost. When they needed to be used to their fullest extent, like on a hunt, the conscious brain as such almost stopped working, as the lower brain function took over control. On a hunt, a Rishati was merciless, every part of his or her brain drawn to only one thing, a successful hunt. At their most desperate, a Rishati could almost be considered feral. She and her sister had been successfully deprogrammed from their genetic heritage as younglings, but it was a part of her psyche that never went away, never completely faded, and she could tap into what made Rishati like her such dangerous predators for a time, remaining completely in control, but still gaining the advantage of her vastly heightened senses. It took its own toll on her, but right now she needed every advantage she could get.

Her heritage was one reason that she had felt drawn to Nara and why she had picked her to be her apprentice. Nara was a fellow predator and although Togruta and Rishati were very different species, they were both pack hunters with strong physical senses. There were times when Nara had felt like a fellow pack mate, especially when they had been assigned to track down a bounty hunter wanted on several charges on Devaron. It was the closest that she had ever gotten to going hunting as a Jedi and she knew that she and Nara had both enjoyed the camaraderie. She would have preferred to have been hunting today with Nara, but she agreed with Aurine that the Padawans' talents were best used elsewhere. At least the Ubroran commandos were an acceptable alternative.

Though she had been wary of bringing along the Ubroran Rangers at first, lest they not be found to be not up to the task, they had turned out to be as good as Colonel Jeffs had advertised. And, she admitted to herself, she had needed some native guides. Now three days into their hunt and having only lost one soldier, she was beginning to see herself as the leader of this 'pack.'

And it was time again to hunt.

Still kneeling, Tiplee concentrated and found that part of herself that was drawn to the hunt, that part of herself where her instincts were sharpest, her fighting skills the most refined. Instinctively she tapped into the Force, and it doesn't take long to find where her prey is.

Because she is hunting droids, she doesn't sense them as such, but what she does sense is the absence of wildlife. Knowing that the only thing that would drive away everything from the tiniest of birds to the deadliest of hunters was a loud, incoming army, she set off in the direction of the emptiness.

Having been around her enough long enough to know that all they had to do was to just follow her without question, the squad of Ubroran Rangers do their best to keep up with the fleet footed Jedi. They know that they cannot keep up with her totally, but it is a matter of professional pride that she not distance them by too much. She salves their ego by not quite moving at her full speed, after all, she doesn't want to outrun her support. Even the best hunters need a pack.

Moving quickly through the forest, avoiding the roots and vines without even so much as glancing at them, she bounds off the dead husk of a fallen tree and vaulted high into the air. Using the Force to amplify her movement, she somersaults mid-air and landed high on a sturdy tree branch, from which she settles herself so she can see her prey.

Using the acute senses of her species where most others would have to use macrobinoculars, she can see the detachment of droids that is moving in to the nearby town. The town appears to be a sleepy farming village, there probably isn't more than a couple thousand Ubrorans scattered amongst the various houses that she sees. The architecture of the village is quaint, colourful, and she gets the impression this town has looked this way for hundreds of years. She won't let the droids change that.

Like a dancer, she drops from the tree, bending her knees deeply to absorb the impact. Immediately she has blasters pointed at her from every direction, but none fire. Lieutenant Dev holds a hand out to signal the squad to stand down, "You have to stop doing that General Tiplee, one of these days one of the boys is going to get a twitch and blast you."

"If it has not happened yet, it will not happen at all," she replied confidently. Though she nodded, "I will be more careful to warn you, next time."

The Ubroran shrugged, the older Lieutenant had seen more action this week than the rest of his career, but he had adapted well to his changed circumstances. He was a good man though, solid and reliable with good instincts. Tiplee was glad to have him by her side.

"Lieutenant, you and your squad should…"

"…Provide cover," replied the Lieutenant, hefting his blaster rifle, "Of course, Master Tiplee."

She grinned, her pack were already on the same page. Now it was time for her to unleash the predator inside of her.

She became the wild, became the hunter, yet she remained a Jedi. She knew from experience how fearsome she could look when she embraced her heritage like this, and now with her beige and brown robe smeared with some of the foliage of the forest, she knows that she probably looked like something out of a nightmare. It's completely lost on the droids of course, but she bets that it isn't lost on whoever is commanding the droids. If she can make herself and her tiny squad of commandos seem larger, more important than they are, she allows Aurine more time to train up a real army to fight, she gives her Padawan more time to harden the resistance of the captured cities. On some level it offends her that she has become bait, a distraction, but rationally she knows that she is merely doing what needs to be done. She is a Jedi and she has never shirked from her responsibility.

Tiplee sprinted towards the town, her lightsaber already in her hand, but unlit. She emerged from the brush at full speed, entering the outskirts at the same time as the droids enter from a nearby roadway. Her squad follows behind, using the available cover, but she raced heedlessly forward. If she draws the attention of the droids in this sector they will all converge on her, which will allow her squad, her pack to take up good positions which to flank the droids with. She may have been playing the role of bait, but her squad were to be her teeth.

Tiplee took cover around a corner and waited for the approach of the droid army. There were no Ubrorans in evidence, but Tiplee could feel them in the Force, silent, afraid. The droids themselves were not much of an obstacle individually, but much like a pack, they had strength in numbers. And their numbers were larger her and her squad. But Tiplee was confident. She was the alpha hunter around here.

Like any good pack, the Ubroran Rangers took up positions around her, trusting that she had found the prey that they were looking for. Several vaulted up onto the rooftops surrounding her, and she nodded in approval – getting the high ground was important in any battle. The Ubroran troops had started out very green, very inexperienced, but they were learning quickly – that was one advantage of a flesh and blood soldier over a droid – they learned. A droid was only ever as good as its programming, a real live solider would learn and get better over time – adapting to their enemies.

She waited until the entire squad was in position before taking action. There was no way to signal to her pack, so she does what any good leader does, she jumped into the fray herself, surprising the droids as she drives her lightsaber through the torso of the first one that she sees. Droids don't shock and they especially don't break, they just open fire when they find a target and that was what they all do right now. Unfortunately for them, as she is currently in the middle of their formation, their targeting computers wouldn't let them fire if they would hit another battle droid, so she could use them as a sort of cover as she whirled her lightsaber around to block the incoming blaster bolts. Tiplee was blazing fast as she dropped deep into the Force, keeping her lightsaber in the exact spot that it needed to be.

Not all incoming fire was from the droids though. The Ubroran Rangers opened up on the battle droid formation, keeping well in cover as they did. They knew by now not to worry about hitting her with their shots, just fire as if she wasn't there at all. Where the incoming fire was coming from didn't bother Tiplee, she just deflected it. And when she could get a respite, she attacked.

She jammed her lightsaber through the head of one droid, the lightsaber cleaves down it's frame, meeting little resistance, almost cutting the beige droid in two. Then she whirled he blade defensively back into a position close to her, parrying incoming fire, from the droids, or her pack, she cannot tell. Nor does it matter, as eventually she deflects a pair of bolts into two more droids causing them to smoke and collapse as their bodies can no longer respond to their processors.

Tiplee, though she is barely conscious of it, notes that the intensity of the incoming fire is dwindling, courtesy, no doubt, of the ambush that she had just led. Then, without warning, the incoming fire intensifies again. She heard a shout from one of the Ubroran soldiers, "Reinforcements coming in from the left!"

That's bad, thought Tiplee, as she finished carving the head off one unfortunate droid, but without a blaster she had to deal with these enemies before she could help with the new enemies that threatened them.

Reaching deeply into the Force she grabbed one of the fallen droids and hurled it at the largest remaining cluster of droids. The droids comically exclaim in surprise, and for a half second she wondered who would program a battle droid with such an odd personality. A half second after that she is carving those droids into scrap and the question disappears from her mind. She now has to turn to her suddenly beleaguered squad. At last she sees why her pack seems so desperate. They are facing an alpha predator of their own.

The enemy has a droideka.

The droideka is an insect-like droid, if an insect happened to be six feet tall, armored and armed with powerful laser emitters. But the droideka is a powerful enemy for more than its armament, it's the shield generator that renders it impervious to small arms fire that gives the droideka the well-earned nickname 'Destroyer.' At the moment, the insect-like droid had it's shield generator at full power, and the blue shield was easily deflecting the incoming blaster fire from her pack, while returning some of its own. Powerful laser blasts from the droideka chipped away at the cover that her pack was hiding behind, and more than one soldier was forced to hastily relocate.

As she polished off the last of the battle droids from the first group, she racks her mind for a plan to deal with the droideka. Her lightsaber would be useless, as the droideka's shield will stop her weapon from getting to the droid underneath the armor, but even without a lightsaber she was not without weapons. Tiplee closed her eyes, pushing past her fatigue to drop deeply into the Force. Picturing the droideka in her mind, she lifte the droideka off the ground and starts slamming it into the nearby wall.

The shield generator of the droid prevents the wall from doing damage to the droid inside, but Tiplee can almost feel the power that it has to draw from its batteries to keep it from being unceremoniously flattened. Her mouth dry and feeling faint, she holds on to the Force and the droideka with sheer force of will, knowing this will be the only chance she will get to defeat the droideka. She swung the droid towards the wall again. And then again.

After the third impact, the shield generator shorts out, the strain of trying to protect the droid within is just too much. The shield generator overloaded and now without protection, the droid impacts with the wall, and its armored frame shatters. As does the wall, crumbling all around the droid. The droideka emits a wounded, electronic cry, before collapsing totally.

Shield that, she thought silently.

For good measure, she walks up to the smoking husk of the droideka and drives her lightsaber right through it. Asserting her dominance, one alpha hunter to another. Then she beat her chest and titled her head back and howled. A warning to anyone else that would try to stand between her and her prey.

As Tiplee returns to full awareness of herself, she becomes aware that she had been hurt and that there is a pretty deep cut just above her left wrist. The funny thing was (not really funny) that she actually couldn't remember how she had gotten that particular wound. As she knew well, when she put all of herself into a hunt, things like pain didn't even seem to matter to her. But now the hunt was over, and that wound on her wrist stung.

Withdrawing a pressure patch from one of her belt pockets, she measured up and cuts off a patch that is correct size and placed it over the wound, wincing as she touches the affected area. At least it's her off hand, she thinks. Still, she is accumulating a number of nicks and bruises that will eventually slow her down enough that she will be vulnerable. The Jedi Knight purged that uncomfortable thought from her psyche.

The Ubroran Rangers hustle over to her, forming up around her. She points at two of the soldiers, "Make sure that those were the last of the droids." The two Ubrorans hustle off quickly.

It isn't long before the townspeople emerge from their homes to thank their heroes. Tiplee generally shies away from any sort of spotlight. Lieutenant Dev accepts the praise from the villagers as Tiplee looks around, appauled at the damage that short battle has done to the village. Scorch marks mar the colourful buildings of the town, and the wall that she had unceremoniously knocked down sticks out like a sore thumb. This town had been beautiful, twenty minutes ago. Now...it was in need of repairs.

Tiplee thought about talking to the townspeople an apologizing for what she had done, but she didn't want to keep in one place for too long, lest she be caught unawares by the droids. She waits until the two soldiers that she dispatched returned with word that there were no droids in evidence. Then she gathers up her troops and laves. Some of the civilians in the town come out of their houses to offer their thanks to her and her squad. They can't afford to stay for too long, lest more reinforcements from the central army come in. Ubrorans with their tendency to broadcast each and every thing that happens in their day meant that if the enemy was monitoring these feeds, they could find where she and her squad had struck.

"Another successful raid, General Tiplee," said the Ubroran Lieutenant as they march back into the forest, slipping away from potential pursuit.

"Any casualties?"

"One."

She grimaced, her pack was weakening. Tiplee glanced up at the setting sun, "We will remember him tonight, then we will resume our hunt tomorrow."

The two walk back towards their base camp, "It's not working, is it General Tiplee? The droid army just keeps advancing, we can reduce their numbers like this, but we can't stop them taking our remaining cities."

She rubbed her forehead, clearing it of some grime, "They still have to have to go through the Napier valley before they can threaten Namya or Wingke, and I'm sure Master Brynar will extract every advantage she can." She stopped walking, forcing the Lieutenant to stop and look back at her, "We must play our part, that is what matters, Lieutenant. Each victory, as minor as it seems, may be the difference between victory and defeat."

"No offence, General, but I'd find a slightly more inspiring speech to give the rest of the troopers. We all have families that we'd like to return to one day." He hesitated, clearly intimidated by her, "we know you are a Jedi, and you are far and above us in terms of fighting ability, but it would help not to be so aloof, to communicate with us. All you seem to do is fight and meditate, it makes you seem impervious to the real hardships we are going through."

Instantly, she felt guilty. She had not thought that such elite troops would be in need of such pep talks, but she realized that she had not been connecting with her pack. She was treating them like she was the Alpha and they were merely Betas. That was not how she hunted best. "I am not impervious, I bleed, I feel, I can die. If I had the power, I would keep each and every one of you alive. You Ubroran rangers, you are my pack, and every wound and death we take is remembered." She paused, "Jedi do not take revenge, so I cannot say that I will avenge their deaths, what I can promise is that each of their sacrifices means something. I'll do that even if I have to cut through the entire droid army by myself."

The Lieutenant thought over that speech soberly, his head bowed in reflection. He eventually looked up, "I think that is the speech you should deliver tonight, General Tiplee."