LordDarthYoda - Yeah by the Clone Wars the droids are locally controlled, right now, the droids are all controlled by the control ship...which is kind of under siege at the moment. Nara's in the topside turret and she just kind of bashes her head into the gunnery station when they crash. Seat belts save lives (but there wasn't an airbag for her head to smack into...) You nailed the Mandalorian strategy too!

Mr. Insane - As someone who played a lot of WH:40k (though many years ago), that was certainly a bit of an inspiration. I think Coren has seen the writing on the wall and is probably trying to plot his own way out.

SpeechBubbleMe - As someone who did archery in high school I might be partial to the bow-and-arrow :).

A/N - Got nothing to say.

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

Please enjoy the next chapter.

Chapter 59: The Battle for Ubrora, Part Four

Aurine Brynar ended the call with the Padawans. She had a really bad feeling about this upcoming confrontation with Coren Vox and the other Mandalorians. Through her connection with her Padawan she could tell that Sascha had been badly hurt during the crash of the Emerald Dream and was in no position to fight anyone, let alone six Mandalorians. She doubted that Nara was in much better condition than Sascha. Tired, fatigued Jedi were vulnerable Jedi.

Tiplee was piloting the speeder with what she could only describe as nearly reckless abandon, cutting and weaving through the trees of the Janit forest at top speed. Despite the Rishati's impressive driving skills, the speeder was bouncing wildly up and down of its repulsorlifts, as the ground level changed. The speeder was also getting smacked by various vines and branches that were hanging low. Aurine herself was having to keep her head low to avoid taking any collateral damage from the forest. Tiplee wasn't quite so fortunate. She had to keep her head up to pilot the speeder, and was getting whipped by some low-hanging vines that seemed to be prevalent in this part of the forest.

Still, Aurine didn't issue a word of protest or even think about telling her to slow down. She didn't want to distract Tiplee either, as at the speeds at which they were currently driving, if Tiplee made an error, she probably wouldn't even have time to shout before she'd be hurled from the speeder, crash webbing secured or not.

Aurine brushed a hand through her hair and felt something warm and sticky. She was cut. She dabbed at the cut on the top of her head again. By the amount of blood she could see on her hand it was not a particularly big cut. Still, it was somewhat annoying to discover that she had been cut on the top of her head and she couldn't even remember when she had taken such a hit. Whatever. Inconsequential. All that mattered was the health of her Padawan.

It saddened Aurine to think that for the past few weeks her Padawan's health had slipped out of her top priorities. It had been a mistake. Tiplee had made her realize that. She just hoped that Sascha wouldn't end up paying the price for her choices. Aurine started rocking forward and back in her chair, if almost to lend that slight bit of momentum to the speeder.

"Must you do that?" asked Tiplee, as she swerved wildly out of the way of a tree that had seemed to appear out of nowhere. This part of the forest was not quite as thickly populated with trees, so Tiplee was really gunning it, pushing its engine to and past its capacity. The forests on Ubrora were odd, they seemed at times to almost be part jungle and at others it was a sparsely populated, almost 'normal' deciduous forest.

"I want to be doing something," she replied.

"How about calling Pravin and seeing if he can summon some reinforcements? Or a medical team. The Padawans will probably need it regardless of what happens."

Tiplee always did seem to have good ideas, Aurine thought. The Rishati was an experienced, level headed Jedi. And she was a Jedi that she had come to greatly admire. Aurine pulled out her comlink, which was a Ubroran model after her usual comlink had stopped working a few days ago. Besides being of an unfamiliar design it worked pretty well.

After a short delay, Pravin Ecalt picked up, "Master Brynar…"

Aurine cut him off, "Pravin, can you get a squad of soldiers and a medical team to where the Emerald Dream crash landed?"

"I…can see what I can do," said Pravin. "The young Jedi, are they okay?"

"They're okay for now. But we need any reinforcements you can summon. Quickly."

"The Ubroran army is a bit disorganized and I'm trying to finish dismantling all the droids just in case they are reactivated. But I'll try to get something sent your way."

The forest was starting to get thicker again and Aurine was wincing at some of the last second dodges that Tiplee was making with their speeder, "Pravin, do you know what happened up there? With the Reprisal?"

"The jamming is down but I have not connected with the forces led by my father. All I can assume is that the Reprisal has taken some serious damage. That's about all I know at this point."

"Tell your father that he's bough about a lifetime of goodwill from the Ubroran people. And from the Jedi Order."

"I'm sure he'll be glad to hear that. But I must resume my duties," said Pravin.

Aurine nodded, "Good luck, Pravin. If you don't hear from us in the next hour...assume the worst." Aurine ended the call. She had wasted enough of Pravin's time. She returned her attention to the present.

Hold on Padawans. Just hold on until we get there.

Sascha Whitestar felt like he was fading in and out of consciousness as he and Nara limped through the Ubroran forest. His head hurt. His chest hurt. His right knee felt like it had been dipped in acid and every time he put any weight on it, he thought that it might give out entirely. He was pretty sure the only reason that he was still able to move at all was Nara. He hadn't thought that Nara had that much willpower left after all the things that had happened to her over this mission, but he had obviously been wrong. She had managed to drag him from the burning wreck of his own ship and carry him to a safe distance. Then after all that she was now carrying most of his weight as they tried to evade the incoming Mandalorians.

The Mandalorians were coming, no doubt. Even with his mind numbed by the head injury he had sustained, he had enough ability in the Force remaining that he could simply feel the hatred and malevolence of six Mandalorians getting closer and closer.

Sascha stumbled over...something, he was having trouble getting his eyes to stay focused on what was in front of him. To keep him upright, Nara had to hold him tighter, which made his broken collarbone inflame in pain. He yelped loudly in pain, before he was able to regain his footing.

"Nara, can we stop? This is pointless. All we are doing is tiring ourselves out."

Nara continued to hold him up, with her left arm hooked under his armpit, "We might be able to get away."

"Nara, there are like six Mandalorians trying to find us. I think that they can find two exhausted Padawans clumsily traipsing through the forest!"

"Then what do you want to do, Sascha?"

"I think we might as well stand and fight. Or you could leave me here and try to get away on your own. I'm only slowing you down. Up to you."

Nara seemed to consider his words carefully, "I'll stay with you. Mostly because I don't think I could escape the Mandos, even on my own."

"You sure? Don't stay here just for me."

Nara slowly shook her head, "I think I'd rather take my chances together. We've shown that we are pretty strong together, right?"

The honest answer would have been that neither of them were strong enough anymore to fight such dangerous opponents. He was sure that Nara knew that too. But there was very little point in focusing on the negative or the obvious. These might be his last moments of living, he didn't want to spend them pointing out that the remainder of their lives could probably be measured in a small number of minutes.

"Yeah, we're the best Nara. The third and fourth best warriors on Ubrora."

"I'm third," boasted Nara.

Sascha laughed, even though it hurt to do so. That was very much a comment that Nara would have made a few weeks ago, back when he used to privately refer to her as a little scamp. She wasn't a little scamp anymore. She was a good friend, edging into best friend territory. And they both had saved each others lives and told each other things they had revealed to few others. That was pretty close as far as friends went.

"Okay. I reserve the right to challenge you for third at a later date though," he replied.

Nara snorted lightly, "As if you could ever beat me."

Sascha stood beside his friend, shoulder to shoulder. "No one's beat us when were are together. Let's see if we can keep that record intact. He looked over at his friend. Grime and matted blood covered her face, and her lekku were covered with dirt and cuts. She held herself favoring both her left leg and with her right arm hanging tenderly from her side. But she was in better shape then he was. Not that it was saying much.

The two Jedi took their lightsabers off their belt and waited for the Mandalorians to find them.

Aboard the Kuati Victory Ravar Ecalt was starting to quietly celebrate. While the Reprisal was not yet destroyed or out of the fight, the damage that the Arrow had inflicted seemed to be permanent. With its droid fighters disabled, the Victory had a tremendous advantage that it was currently pressing with zero holds-barred. It was only going to be a matter of time before the Reprisal broke. He hoped.

Ravar had underestimated the toughness of the Reprisal though. He had thought that after a couple of volleys from the Victory the Reprisal would surrender. Or attempt to run. But the Reprisal doggedly continued to fight, though it was vastly outgunned.

"Why won't they surrender?" barked Captain Kuat. The tiny Kuati pointed at him, "Mr. Ecalt, get in the captain's chair and see if you can wrangle a surrender out of the Reprisal."

"I...wouldn't even know how to begin."

"Just tell them if they don't surrender we'll blast them all into the afterlife. That should motivate them."

"What terms should I offer?"

The Kuati captain gesticulated frustratedly, "You're a businessman, get us a good deal!" She turned around to observe the battle and inevitably find someone else to yell orders at.

Ravar stood frozen for a moment, totally caught off guard by the request. But then he turned and found the captain's chair and sat in it. This time he didn't feel as horribly out of place as he did last time. He waited for the holographic form of Vash Varless to appear. When after thirty seconds, Vash was yet to appear he considered asking someone if the communications gear had been damaged during the battle.

Then, a shell shocked looking Neimoidian appeared in holo in front of him. "Who in the seven hells are you?" he asked.

The richly dressed Neimodian looked around furtively, "I am Administrator Protash."

"Son, my name is Ravar Ecalt, and I'm calling to negotiate a surrender with Vash Varless. If you don't put him on my screen within the next minute I'm going to tell my captain to blow your ship into its constituent molecules. So go fetch him and stop wasting my time."

Ravar didn't like to be mean, it wasn't in his DNA to be disrespectful. But when a competitor sends a flunky to meet with you, you give the flunky a hard time, because if you allowed a competitor to disrespect you, it allowed them to claim the high ground. The business world was cuthroat. It was the only world he really knew.

The Neimoidian visibly floundered in holographic form. "I cannot get Admiral Varless. The Admiral has...left the bridge."

"And why, pray tell, would he do that?"

"He's heading for the escape pods. I think."

"You think, or you know."

"I know, I know!" cowed the Neimoidian.

"Okay then Administrator, who is running the ship?"

The Neimoidian blinked and looked around but said nothing.

Ravar figured it was time to drive the dagger home. "You see, we're from the Republic. If you surrender honorably I'm sure we can work out some sort of terms that will keep you free of jail time. Otherwise, I'll be forced to assume that you are in charge of this illegal invasion of Ubrora and hold you legally accountable as such!" Ravar was bluffing. But he was pretty sure the person on the other end of this call didn't know that.

"I...I...what are your terms for surrender."

Ravar was having to think on his feet here. He wasn't sure what good terms were for a surrender. "First, you give us Vash Varless. I will send a boarding party to confirm he is in your custody. Second, you will power down the Reprisal and lower all defences. I have no further terms at the moment, though I reserve the right to change that."

Administrator Protash looked off screen, as the picture shook. The Reprisal was continuing to be rocked by the Kuati Victory. Ravar concealed a feral smile. This negotiation was about to end in his favour.

"I accept your terms. Call off the attack!"

"We will cease fire as soon as possible," he said with a trace of smugness. Then he ended the call. He bounced out of the captain's chair with an ease that belied his advancing years, made his way to Captain Kuat and bowed politely, "Captain Kuat, I've accepted the Reprisal's surrender."

"Vash Varless actually surrendered?"

Ravar smiled tightly, "It appears that Admiral Varless is attempting to run. He is apparently trying use an escape pod to flee."

Captain Kuat shouted into the pit, "Boarding parties are a go. Arrest all officers and make sure the Reprisal is disabled. Tell the squads that whoever brings me Vash Varless gets a bonus. Weapons – hold for now but stay ready." The Kuati captain finally seemed to relax just slightly, "Looks like we managed to win the day. Congratulations, Mr. Ecalt."

"Thank you for your spirited conduct, Captain Kuat," he replied, bowing slightly.

"Mr. Ecalt," shouted Lieutenant Torical, "I have General Pravin Ecalt for you." There were a couple of cheers from the command pit on that pronouncement, mostly from officers who didn't have anything to currently be doing.

Ravar felt himself get emotional, but he absolutely did not want anyone to see that it did. Then he decided he didn't care. "I'll speak to my son," he said, his voice cracking with emotion. Instead of going back to the captain's chair, Lieutenant Torical guided him to her own station and handed her headset over to him. "Ravar Ecalt," he spoke into the headset.

"Hi Dad."

Ravar got choked up for a moment at hearing his son's voice. His son sounded tired but proud, as well he should be. "Hi, son."

"Thanks for coming to the rescue. I'll give you the full details later, but I need another favour."

"Another favour?"

"This one's a bit more manageable. Is it possible for you to send some troops or a medical team to coordinates I will give you? We have hurt Jedi that we'd like to take care of. We'll also take any medical supplies that you can give us."

"Send me the coordinates, and I'll see what I can do."

"Thanks dad. I'll see you soon. I have many stories to share."

"Don't do anything stupid, son," Ravar chided.

"Wouldn't dream of it," Pravin commented dryly. "Ecalt out."

Ravar stood from his station and tried to track down Captain Kuat. "Captain, I have one last request..."

Nara Nalto stood beside her best friend and waited for a fight that would probably be her last. The longer that she stood here with Sascha, the worse her body felt. Her head really, really hurt. She could feel swelling increasing around her left eye and she could almost feel it want to close. Her body wanted her to lie down and stop moving. But she wouldn't let it. She couldn't let it.

The Mandalorians were close now. She could hear them coming as they trampled their way through the forest. She wasn't sure if Sascha could hear them yet. Whatever damage her body had taken, her sensitive Togruta hearing was still working well. Nara's ancestors had once hunted in forests much like this one. They'd hunted in packs because the predators of Shili were a lot more ferocious than your average Togruta and there was strength in numbers, in the pack. Her pack was reduced to just two. But it was still a pack.

As if out of a nightmare, the Mandalorians came into view. All six Mandalorians had slightly different coloured Armour. A couple showed damage from the battle, one was what you might have considered, wounded, the shoulder of his armor had been blackened by a blaster bolt and his arm was held limply at his side. All of them were in better shape than she or Sascha though.

Beside her, Sascha dropped slightly back and to her left. Ironically, this was the position that most Padawans took up when fighting with their Master. Which meant that she was playing the role of the 'Master.' This would have amused her, had the situation not been so dire.

The Mandalorians fanned out, giving them all good angles from which to fire from. She and Sascha ignited their lightsabers, but made no move to attack. In normal circumstances, attacking probably would have been a better plan then getting surrounded by Mandalorians. Neither Jedi was really mobile enough to go on the attack though. So they played for time and a potential last minute rescue.

Coren Vox stepped forward and Nara tensed, which sent a wave of pain through her body. Coren held his hands up and away from his weapons, "Well, if it isn't our two youngling Jedi from Bontha. You two have been quite a thorn in our side for a while now."

"More than a thorn," she retorted. "We won. You lost. The droid army is gone."

"But we remain," said Coren, who took a long knife off his belt and started inspecting it. "Which leaves us to the final accounting. It appears I will no longer be paid for this assignment. This makes me a...free agent of sorts."

"You're a wanted criminal, Coren," said Sascha through gritted teeth. "The only freedom you have is what planet you are going to be imprisoned on."

"That's very cute of you to say, young Jedi. And so very naive. See I'm about to have two very important hostages." Coren pointed his knife directly at them, "You two."

Nara snorted loudly, "Taking Jedi hostages is historically not a good plan. It very rarely works out for the hostage takers. We're never going to stop trying to bring you to justice Coren."

Coren nodded as if he had expected that response, "I'm not really giving you a choice in the matter. But you are right. Maybe I'll only need one Jedi hostage. I think it would be such fun to kill you in front of your Master. It would be nice payback for the many friends and many years of my life that your witch of a Master cost me."

"You want revenge, come and get it yourself," Nara replied hotly. "You and me. One on one."

The other Mandalorians looked to Coren, obviously expecting him to accept her challenge. But Coren merely laughed, "A good ploy, little Jedi. And one that might have worked against someone younger and dumber. But not me."

Nara forced a casual shrug out of her shoulders, "Coward."

That insult stung Coren, as Nara knew it would. She and Sascha had a far better chance at wasting time if she was dueling Coren and not fighting six Mandalorians.

Coren laughed loudly and pointed at them, "Take them both. I want them alive. But...take some liberties with the Togruta if you have to."

The five other Mandalorians advanced towards the Jedi. She and Sascha stood their ground, mostly because it was the only thing they could realistically do. The Mandalorians didn't fire their weapons, ostensibly because they wanted to take she and Sascha alive. But taking Jedi alive who had their lightsabers functional was a tricky task, at best.

While the five Mandalorians starts to circle around she and Sascha, out of the corner of her eye she saw Coren preparing something on his left vambrace. Then she felt her danger sense flare. But even with full warning that something was coming, she wasn't ready for what Coren had prepared.

What she could only describe as a sonic boom emerged from Coren's arm, and the sheer force of it knocked her off of her feet and onto her butt. She struggled back to her feet just in time to get blasted by a second sonic boom. The second one knocked her flat onto her back and her head hit the ground, giving her an instant influx of dizziness.

Nara got to her feet again, but she was unsteady on her feet and stood, knock kneed as a pair of Mandalorians rushed her. She swung her lightsaber in a defensive pattern, hoping to buy time to recover from the two blasts she had just taken. But it didn't work as well as she had hoped. One of the Mandalorians hit her with a kick to her damaged knee. She cried out as her knee buckled, but she managed to stab her lightsaber towards one of the Mandalorians that was assaulting her. Her aim was true and her blue blade ran right through the unfortunate Mandos chest.

Her satisfaction at that accomplishment was lost in the next moment, when a punch from the other Mandalorian caught her square on her jaw.

She must have blacked out for a moment because the next thing she remembered was being face down in the dirt. She looked up. Sascha was near her fighting against the four remaining Mandalorians. He was waving his lightsaber around dangerously trying to protect her and give her time to recover, but he wasn't mobile enough for his defence to last for long. Nara ignored her aching body to get to her feet, just in time to see Sascha go down. One Mandalorian had gotten around behind him and kicked out at his good knee. He tried to avoid it, but it landed true, buckling his knee and sending him crashing to the ground.

With a cry, she jumped up to her feet and swung her lightsaber around in a 360 degree arc, hoping to get the Mandalorians to back off and to give Sascha enough time to get back to his feet. It was partially successful. The Mandalorians did back off, but Sascha stayed on one knee, his eyes glassy and distant. He's done, she realized. That meant that she would be done rather soon.

"Enough of this. I'll handle it myself." Coren's voice.

Nara could fuzzily make out Coren pushing through a pair of Mandalorians to get to her. Nara brought her lightsaber down from over her head towards Coren. But she was either too slow, or Coren was too fast because he caught the hilt of her lightsaber in his left hand as she was trying to bring it downwards. And with his right hand, Coren drove his fist directly into her stomach.

She moaned loudly as the air was driven from her lungs, but she willed herself to stay up. She redoubled her efforts to push her lightsaber downward. But whether Coren was too strong for her, or she had just been weakened by all the events of the past few hours, she couldn't over match Coren's one arm with her two.

Then Coren punched her again. This time it was an uppercut that snapped her head upwards. The next thing that Nara felt was falling. Nara went down hard, her lightsaber falling from her slackened hands. This time she wasn't going to be getting up. But the Mandalorians didn't care, they swarmed her while she was down, kicking her in the midsection with their armored boots.

The first solid kick that she took drove the remaining air from her lungs and probably broke a couple of her ribs. The next impact she remembered was someone stomping on her chest with their boot. She would have cried out if there was any air in her lungs from which to cry. The next impacts felt like knives driven into her side. How long the beating last she couldn't quite say.

When the Mandalorians were done with their beating, she rolled onto her side, her face pressing against the dirt and ground. Her chest started heaving, as her body tried to get air flowing back into her body. Tears were flowing from her eyes, that was how much pain that she was currently in. There were no thoughts of fighting back or thoughts of anything besides the amount of pain she was in.

She had lost track of Sascha during the last few moments, but she saw him again now. He was down on the ground, not moving. A couple of Mandalorians were pelting him with kicks and he was not really defending himself in a cogent manner. He was clearly down and out.

Her attention was forced away from Sascha when she felt something cold and sharp pressing into her neck. Coren's knife. She willed her body to be still, but she thought that she could feel his knife pressing, just slightly, into her neck, just puncturing it slightly. All it would take was a single flick and Coren Vox could end her life. But it seemed like she was worth just enough to keep alive, for now. Coren just wanted her alive long enough so he could kill her in front of his Master.

Nara tried to find a cutting remark or phrase that would show her bravado, her lack of fear of death. But she couldn't find the words to say, nor the bravery to say them. And the truth was, she didn't want to die.

"Stay down, little girl. Now you know how a true warrior fights." Coren turned and picked up her lightsaber. Nara pawed weakly, drunkenly, trying to grab it back, trying to summon it back to its rightful owner. Coren kept it just out of her reach, toying with her as if it amused him. "I should kill you, you know. You killed Esmer Faxi. He was a good Mandalorian, a good man. He was worth ten of one of you Jedi whelps."

Nara closed her eyes and decided that she would play dead. It really didn't take much acting skill. She thought that she might just pass out anyway regardless of her intention.

Her choice in the matter was taken away when Coren used the hilt of her own lightsaber to knock her into unconsciousness.