LordDarthYoda- It's sometimes fun to write characters who have outsized opinions of themselves. Bruenor is certainly one of those people. He thinks that he's a main character, when in reality, he's just a background character in a more important story. And I think you are right that everything has gone a little too well for the Jedi so far. But it will get worse for them, believe me...

A/N - I'm actually taking a vacation from work, so I'm going to have lots of time to write in the next week (yay!) Really need to polish up the rest of this book and get cracking on the next one - posting two chapters a week has meant that we've covered a lot of what I've already written quite quickly!

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

Please enjoy the next chapter.

Chapter 29: Tactics

"Curse whoever did the research on this planet. If I find the person responsible, I will make it my top priority to have him brought to me and have this person experience this weather. Rain, torrential rain, for days on end, rain that seems to never end. It would have been nice to know that this was the rainy season on planet when planning this planetary invasion. Truly, I am supported by idiots, and droids.

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

"Good work, capturing the designated regent sent to Bontha, Padawans. What are your plans for today?"

Though Aurine Brynar couldn't physically see her Padawan or Nara because she was just talking to the Padawans over her comlink, she could almost see the prideful expression on their faces.

"Tomorrow we are going droid hunting," Sascha said without much enthusiasm, "and we'll bring along some of our Ubroran friends as well."

"How are your friends at fighting?"

"Well, let's just say that we'll be paying attention to make sure they don't shoot us accidentally," Nara commented dryly.

Aurine grimaced, while she still thought that having Sascha and Nara lead a resistance force in Bontha was the best use of their talents, she just wished that there weren't so many hidden dangers in their task. Fighting with untrained 'troops' beside them was just one of those hidden dangers. Because the resistance fighters were essentially civilians, they were prone to doing more crazy and undisciplined things than professional soldiers would. Still, she maintained hope that Sascha and Nara would be kept out of the worst of the fighting. And if she did her job, they would.

"Well, stay safe, Padawans."

"We will, Master," replied Sascha.

"Did you get any information out of the Neimoidian you captured?"

"Nah," said Sascha. "Despite our Neimodian friend's massive ego, he's really just a flunky, an administrator, he didn't know anything of real importance. I'll transmit what he did reveal to you though."

"Okay, I'll look for that. If there is nothing else, I'll talk to you later…"

"Wait," interrupted Nara, "I have something I want to propose." Aurine felt her eyebrows raise, having not expected the interruption from the Togruta. Through the comlink, she heard Nara take a deep breath, "I think we should tell Lirri that she's force-sensitive. I think that we could brand her 'the first Ubroran Jedi.' She's already taken a leadership position within the resistance, and we could make her into an effective propaganda tool. The Ubrorans already greatly respect the Jedi, having one of their own could potentially be a boon. I know you probably don't want to do this," conceded Nara, "But I think it might be a good idea.

Aurine took a moment to think about it. In a normal situation, she would have said no, that the danger of even revealing the truth about Lirri's hidden talents could have wide-ranging effects. But it wouldn't matter if Ubrora became a colony world of Vash Varless' little empire. She, like Nara, realized that she had to use everything at her disposal to keep this planet free. "Okay, you can tell Lirri about her force-sensitivity, but don't teach her anything. Make her a propaganda tool, nothing else."

"We understand, Master," the Togruta replied, "May the Force be with you."

"And with you, Padawans." Aurine ended the call, and returned her focus to the task at hand. And what a task it was.

Aurine stared out over the open plains of Ubrora as rain pelted her mercilessly from above. The rain didn't bother her, indeed she actually welcomed it. In her mind it was the weather of Ubrora fighting back against Behind her was the start of what the Ubrorans called the Napier Valley. The Napier Valley was by most geological definitions, a canyon, and it separated the city of Gamudo from the cities of Namya in the east and Wingke in the south. And thus, because it offered the fastest route from where the droid army had landed in Gamudo, to the cities that were likely to be their next targets, Namya and Wingke, she had expected that the droid army would try to traverse the canyon. The shortest route from city to city was the logical route to take, she expected that someone commanding an army of droids would simply make the most logical, and uninspiring choice.

While the droid army could have avoided the long canyon by going around it, they had chosen not to, probably partially due to the pounding rains and the harassment by Tiplee and her raiders. The rains had slowed down the advance of the army, because the ground had become slick and treacherous, and even droids could slip and fall. An untrained observer might suggest that a droid army was immune to things that flesh and blood armies were subject to. But Aurine knew differently. Even droids needed to recharge, and even droid armies had supply lines that could be overextended.

Aurine had to admit that Tiplee had also done a fantastic job in slowing down the advance of the main enemy army as well. Though the strength of her contingent of Ubroran Rangers was dwindling, Tiplee made sure that the enemy army could not rest for a moment, or shut down to recharge their batteries. She had been so effective that the enemy had not even bothered to secure it's flanks anymore, just simply opting to keep the army together in one massive armored fist.

And it was that fist was about to descend into the Napier Valley.

And that was where she was taking over. She had to make the incoming army pay for every inch of territory that it took along the Napier Valley, because if it wasn't at a manageable size when it came out of the valley, she would do the honorable thing and surrender. She was a fighter, but neither could she completely ignore that she was a Jedi. Jedi protected life, so she would not, could not order her troops into battle if there wasn't a chance of success.

But she hoped that she had been clever enough with the traps she had laid out. That maybe the droids would be stupid, or incompetent, and maybe, just maybe, the army that got to the end of the valley would be weakened enough, that they could stage a definitive fight for the freedom of Ubrora.

Her comlink beeped, and she answered the call with the press of a button, "General Brynar, we've spotted the droid army. What are your orders?"

She took a long deep breath, preparing herself for battle, "Operation Death Valley is a go. I'll be joining the first wave of defenders. If you cannot contact me for whatever reason, Colonel Jeffs is in command. Brynar out."

In the distance, Aurine could see the first vestiges of the droid army making its approach, which meant that it was time for her to make herself scarce. If her life was a holodrama, she would single handedly cut through the approaching army as if she was some sort of demigod. Even in Aurine's wildest dreams she could hardly imagine doing such a thing. She could do amazing things for moments at a time, but she was still subject to the laws of physics and the laws of mortality...

Putting that thought aside, she left her vantage point and found the speeder that she had driven to get here, put it into gear and zoomed away from the approaching droid army. It didn't take long for her to reach her destination deeper into the valley. Aurine found her way to the first layer of the traps that she had set out for the incoming army. The first layer was the sort of traps that any sort of reasonable commander would expect, snipers and small platoons that harassed the incoming enemy and then broke and ran before any significant opposition could be brought to bear on them. The second layer of traps was more devious, but an experienced commander would probably be expecting them. This layer was made up of explosive traps that would hopefully take out many droids as they came close to their pressure sensors.

The third layer of traps…was potentially a masterstroke or completely insane, and Aurine hadn't decided on which it was yet. Hopefully she'd never have to use the third layer of traps.

She waved to the four other Ubrorans she'd be sharing this particular ambush spot with. The group of four soldiers had set up camp behind a natural rocky outcropping that hid their getaway speeder as well as provided some cover. Having spent hours on making sure that their little ambush spot was hidden from view, Aurine had only found the Ubrorans through the Force. This was going to be a simple snipe and run, but she wanted to be visible on the front lines, inspiring her troops.

At least these Ubrorans were professional soldiers and they comported themselves as such. As soon as they saw her approach, the started loudly joking with her, however, she noted that the spotters kept their eyes scanning their surroundings and the snipers kept their hands on their weapons.

"You going to throw your lightsaber at the droids, General? Or do you want to take one of the rifles? Slaty here is the worse shot so you can take his rifle."

"Hey!" responded the other Ubroan sniper indignantly.

Aurine smiled slightly, "No I'm here only to observe and to protect you if something goes wrong."

"Boring," replied the first sniper.

"And hopefully unnecessary," she said.

The first sniper stretched out his shoulders for a moment, "As you say, General Brynar."

They waited for perhaps an hour, before the first signs of the droid army appeared. The spotters saw them just after she had managed to sense them, she couldn't really sense the droids, but she could sense the flesh and blood beings that accompanied the massive army. The spotters with their MB450 macrobinoculars calmly called out the distance to the approaching droids. As it decreased, the tension in the air seemed to grow.

"Remember," she whispered quietly, "Don't worry about taking out priority targets, just hit what you can. We'll have about a minute to do as much damage as we can before they call down an artillery strike from one of their Armored Assault Tanks. Set your chronos, and after a minute, we break for the speeder, understood?"

Various murmurs answered her. Feeling that the snipers were locked in, Aurine withdrew to behind them, not wanting to disrupt their preparations

When the droids reached a reasonable distance, the snipers opened fire. The first shot hit a commander droid, it's yellow insignia and markings gave it away as a droid of slightly more value than the basic, run of the mill battle droids. Whatever it had been it was headless now. Aurine watched as the droids attempted to fire back at the snipers, but their weapons were not rated for the kind of distance they were at, and the droids fire was harmless. She didn't even bother igniting her lightsaber.

Aurine figured it was only a matter of time before someone transmitted their location to someone with some bigger guns, but that took time. It took a report from a droid to a flesh-and-blood commander who then would then decide on a course of action, who would then transmit an order. That took time, but she was hoping that it would take enough time for a reaction that little raids like this could be effective. She was taking a risk, but it was a calculated one.

As her chrono beeped, indicating it had been a minute since they had started firing, Aurine abandoned her rocky post and headed for the speeder behind. Two Ubrorans diligently followed her. Slaty and his observer did not. "Slaty!" she yelled, "Time to bug out!"

"Just a few more seconds…and….gotcha. Okay we are coming."

Aurine cursed and gunned the engines to the speeder. She saw Slaty and his observer running down the rocky escarpment, pebbles being kicked up by his boots as they slid made his way towards her. Then Aurine felt her danger sense flare. She knew what that had to mean.

"Too late! Get down!" she yelled.

Years of training took over for Aurine Brynar. She reached out with her senses and determined what was approaching. It was an artillery shell, being fired ballistically and accurately at their location. She knew that if it landed in the right area, it would hit the outcropping, annihilating it and the speeder along with it. It would be a very ignominious end for a Jedi Knight, but she was just a mortal, she could die.

She reached out with the Force, searching for the incoming projectile. It was moving far too quickly to grab or even move out of the way, all she could do was use the Force to push upwards and hope that her invisible hand could just nudge the incoming missile out of the way.

She focused, and sent a burst of energy towards the incoming projectile, putting all of her focus, all of her willpower behind it. Her push almost missed the missile completely and it turned her Force push into a nudge, but sometimes a nudge is just enough.

The now slightly off-course missile exploded in front of the speeder, and it sent the barely moving speeder careening wildly. She felt the heat from the explosion just in front of her, felt it send her hair scattering, and for a half-second she wondered if this was it, if the explosion was going to consumer her, but apparently she had done just enough to move the missile out of the way. It took all of her vast piloting experience not to smash the speeder into the canyon wall, but she could not prevent the speeder from rolling and dumping all of its cargo on the ground. She jumped from the falling speeder, falling shoulder first on the hard, rocky ground. She rolled with the impact, attempting (and not really succeeding) to minimize the damage that she took from the collision.

Aurine looked around. Two Ubrorans were down, with injuries that seemed to be minor. She was bleeding from a cut somewhere on her forehead, and her shoulder was throbbing but she was otherwise fine. The other two Ubrorans were picking up the equipment that had fallen out of the speeder and were looking to her for further instructions. "We have to get out of here," she said, feeling a sudden wave of fatigue come over her. Moving artillery shells out of the way was not something that she could do every day.

She helped one of the wounded Ubrorans, Slaty, to his feet, "Thanks, General." She gestured further down the valley, "Come on, we have to go before they figure out we lived through that."

The group hustled away, further down the canyon. Aurine carried Slaty, while the observers carried the wounded sniper away. She activated her comlink and called for one of the nearby groups to come by and pick them up. After a few breathless minutes of running away as fast as possible, she saw the speeder in the distance. Waving it down, the group hustled inside, and the driver took off as soon as everyone had found a seat.

It was not until she was well away from the fighting that she allowed herself to relax. All things considered, it hadn't gone too badly. Only two soldiers slightly injured in exchange for the ten or fifteen droids they'd managed to disable. At this rate, it would only take about ten years to whittle down the droid army.

Aurine leaned back in her seat. Was it even possible to win this war? Or was she just bravely fighting against the impossible?