Amu (amu - mom) and I, along with the rest of the 345th have been sent by the rest of the Jedi Council to assist Master Mundi and his troops on Utapau. We aren't the closest to the planet, that's actually a Nautolan pair, and an old crechemate of mine and her master, Gia Tips and Ingliss Gorman.
But the 345th is who the Chancellor requested go. So we have to go.
We take the LAATs down to the planet's surface, and land in Master Mundi's camp. Amu leads us off of the LAAT, and I stand almost directly beside buir (buir - dad). But we land in the very middle of a sandstorm. K'oyacyi. (K'oyacyi - cheers)
"Master Mundi!" amu (amu - mom) yells.
"Master Kenobi, it's good to see you landed all right."
"Is there a place we can talk out of the storm?"
"This way."
We follow Master Mundi into a large tent. Inside there is a clone commander, Commander Jet, I think, and another padawan. The padawan is standing almost at attention, and is looking at the holomap with a frown on his face.
"Padawan Dalori." The boy snaps his head up, and turns to face us. "I believe introductions are in order. This is Master Ileema Kenobi, Padawan Leeda Skywalker, and clone Commander Logan. Master Kenobi, Padawan Skywalker, Commander, this is my padawan, Callum Dalori."
He nods to us, and I give him a small smile. Then I walk over to him and stick my hand out to shake. He hesitates, and looks at Master Mundi, before shaking my hand. When he turns away, I frown. Over the course of the war, and my time as a youngling, I've met several padawans, none of them were like this. It's odd.
I follow amu (amu - mom) and buir (buir - dad) and stand at the holotable. Which is projecting a map of Utapau. When all of us are looking, Master Mundi starts showing us where everything is. Namely, the Separatist camp.
"They have holed up in a canyon, which makes it difficult for us to get to them as there are indigenous tribes surrounding the canyon. We have tried to force them away, however, none of the tribes have moved."
"Have you tried negotiating with them?" amu (amu - mom) asks.
"They will not bend to negotiations."
"But have you tried?"
After a moment where Master Mundi doesn't respond, his padawan pipes up. "No, we haven't."
Amu (amu - mom) nods to him, and continues to survey the map.
"Logan, Leeda, what do you think?"
Buir (buir - dad) speaks up almost immediately. "There is a small area where the tribes are not inhabiting, we could attempt to sneak through there if there are no negotiations or the negotiations fail. But it's in full view of the Separatist camp. I would try negotiating first."
Amu (amu - mom) nods to him, then looks to me.
"Negotiation looks like the best choice. I agree with buir." (buir - dad)
Since Master Mundi is on the Council, he already knows about amu (amu - mom) and buir (buir - dad) having said the riduurok (riduurok - marriage vows), so I can use the titles they say I gave them on this mission. It's nice, really nice.
Master Mundi sighs, but his padawan, Callum, starts,
"Actually, Masters, there is no need to get them to move. It seems each of the tribes have migration routes. They moved away from the canyon a little over fifteen minutes ago."
"Good to know," amu (amu - mom) says, "Vor'e, Padawan Dalori."
He looks a little confused, oh, he must not know Mando'a. I speak up now,
"Vor'e means thank you."
"Oh."
He nods to me, and at an almost scathing look from Master Mundi, he goes scarlet red. I wonder what's going on…
Commander Jet speaks up now, he isn't one of buir's (buir's - dad's) batchmates, so he's aliit (aliit - family), but I don't know what to call him. "We could do a reconnaissance mission."
Master Mundi nods, and amu (amu - mom) asks,
"Who should we send?"
"The padawans perhaps? This would be a test of their skills."
Padawan Dalori nods once, stiffly. Amu (amu - mom) turns to me, and gives me a questioning look. When I smirk at her and nod, she relents.
"Very well."
I hear the wind howl, and peek outside. "Uh, maybe we should wait for a bit. This storm is looking pretty nasty. I don't remember much about Tatooine, but I do remember that you should never go outside during a sandstorm."
Amu (amu - mom) nods, and we continue to make a plan.
When the storm stops, Padawan Dalori and I grab a couple of birgaans (birgaans - backpacks) and head out. Since it's more difficult to conceal technology from droid scanners, we're on foot. We set out for the canyon, and keep a steady pace.
When we're a good bit away from the camp, I ask him,
"Is there a reason you're so quiet? And what do you want me to call you."
"No. And Callum is fine."
"Okay. Just making sure, because you haven't even said three words to me. I was jus wondering."
"Okay. I just want to get this done."
"Fine by me. Recon isn't really my strong suit."
"I can tell."
I crack a real smile, but we keep walking. When we get close to the canyon, both of us pause for a moment to cloak ourselves. Not from sight, but from the scanners. They will likely have a couple of guards, but we should be able to hide from those.
After both of us have nodded to each other, signaling that we're good to go. We make our way to the canyon lip. We both lay down inside of some bushes, and I carefully open my birgaan (birgaan - backpack). Then I take out my EBs, and lift them to my eyes.
It's busy down in the canyon. The droids are moving around and getting guns ready. Kriff! The tribes that kept us from attacking them, have also kept them from attacking us. I look up from my EBs to see my own expression mirrored on Callum's face.
As soon as we realize what we both saw, we quietly put our EBs back in our birgaans (birgaans - backpacks) and get up. When we're up, we continue to cloak ourselves, but now we also use the Force to enhance our speed. This will help us get back to camp quickly.
However, it isn't quick enough. Because two commando droids saw us and found us. And they fire stunners at us. Since we don't have our lightsabers in our hands, we can't block them, and they hit us.
So the next thing I feel, is darkness, and falling on something hard.
Based on the amount of light I see when I come to, both Callum and I have been knocked out for a couple of hours. Not to mention General Asthma himself is there. K'oyacyi. (K'oyacyi - cheers)
He coughs, then says, "Jedi, what were you doing here?"
"Are you di'kutla?" I ask, with innocence in my voice. (di'kutla - stupid, idiotic)
Callum's face looks horrified. But I roll my eyes. I've heard enough of ba'vodu (ba'vodu - uncle) Obi-Wan's stories that I know how to get him riled up. And buir (buir - dad) and the rest of his batch made sure I know how to get out of rope binds. Which is what we're bound with at the moment.
So I've already started slipping my binds. And my lightsaber, along with Callum's, is on the table. Perfect. And it's also a good thing that Master Drallig taught me Jar'Kai.
General Asthma hacks, and gets closer. "What were you doing!" he yells.
"What does it look like, General Asthma? And if you're going to question us, at least make it understandable."
"Oh no," the droids behind him say.
I smirk, I've just about gotten my binds off, and he's furious. Grievous is a formidable opponent, and I know that I'm not a match for him. But I also know, that he's not nearly so good of a duelist when he's distracted. So we might be able to escape.
"You dare insult me!"
"You call those insults? My baby brother has insults that make those seem like ice. His burn, so no, I'm not insulting you. I'm merely asking if you cannot come to the conclusion of what we were doing and need us to spell it out for you."
He lets out a frustrated yell, and I slip my binds off. I bolt up and summon our lightsabers to my hands, and activate them. It's been a while since I've practiced Jar'Kai, but I still fall back into the variation stance for Ataru that was designed for Jar'Kai.
When Grievous sees the purple and… orange blades, he ignites the lightsabers that he has stolen from the Jedi he killed. He comes at me, but I slip around, and use my blade to cut through Callum's wrist bindings.
"If you could, getting backup from camp would be much appreciated."
"Are you sure?"
"Elek! Go!" (elek - yes)
"Okay."
He runs out of the tent, and presumably in the direction of the Republic base. Now, I'm on my own and General Asthma is kinda mad at me. Fun. He turns around and comes at me again. Right now, my best best is to avoid him for as long as I can, and go on the defensive. When he rushes out of the tent, I engage him.
His four lightsabers make a loud krshhhing sound against mine and Callum's. Even as we duel, I look around. If I can make a big enough distraction, I can get away.
I draw him out to an open area, and leap over his head. It's a bit of a reach to get the height I need, but I get it. I really need to practice Jar'Kai more. I make a slash toward his head while I'm in the air, but he blocks it with two of his own.
When I land, I see the armory. Which has explosives. Which I can blow up. This'll be fun! I draw Grievous in front of the armory and then dart inside. I activate all of them, and grab a control panel. Then I run outside and vault on a droid over Grievous, when I land I push him toward the armory. And then I take off running, while I'm running, I deactivate the lightsabers.
When I make it to the path up from the canyon floor, I turn around, and press the big, red button on the control pad. A few seconds after, the camp is engulfed in flame. Thankfully, I estimated right, and I'm outside the explosion zone. Though I do get some ash from their tents that's floated up on me. Amu (amu - mom), buir (buir - dad), and ba'vodu (ba'vodu - uncle) Kya will definitely know that it wasn't just a scouting mission as soon as they see me. Not to mention the lecture I'll get from Wish on inhaling smoke. K'oyacyi. (K'oyacyi - cheers)
Once I see that the camp has been destroyed, I run up to the lip of the canyon. When I reach the start of the trail, I run smack dab into Callum.
"Oof!"
"Sorry," he says, as he helps me up.
"Why are you here?"
"I was on my way to camp when I saw and heard the explosion. I ran back to make sure you were okay. And why didn't you let me help?"
"I'm fine, I caused the explosion. And I didn't let you help because I figured I could distract Grievous better. I've heard ba'vodu (ba'vodu - uncle) Obi-Wan's stories enough to pick up a few things. I knew I had gotten Grievous mad enough, and if I evaded him I could make him even angrier. I just played him. Also, can we get out of here? He has a penchant for surviving, and I would like to live. Also, here you go."
I hand him his lightsaber and he takes it. Then we walk away from the canyon, then start running. Using the Force to speed ourselves up.
When we get close to camp my lungs are burning, and I start coughing. I sound almost as bad as General Asthma. Which is rather insulting to me. We have to slow down from a run to a walk, because the smoke has entered my lungs and it's hard for me to breathe.
"Are you okay?"
I swallow thickly. "Yeah," I rasp out. "Smoke inhalation."
"Then let's get back to camp."
I nod, and we keep walking, and I keep coughing. Wish, buir (buir - dad), amu (amu - mom), and Master Mundi are all waiting for us just outside of camp. I have no doubt they saw the explosion on the scanners. When we get close to them, I break into a coughing fit.
This one is pretty bad. Wish runs over to me, barking orders over his shoulder to the junior medics. They run into the med tent, and Wish helps me into it. When I'm in, he hooks up an oxygen mask and puts it over my face.
"Get me an Xray!"
Wish sticks my arm with a needle, and draws blood. That's nothing new, I've been having blood drawn since I was a little kid. And the oxygen has helped my breathing a little. I'm still coughing, but not so much.
As soon as Wish is done with the blood, he gives them to a junior medic. Another medic, I think this one is from Master Mundi's troops, comes up and tells Wish something in his ear. He curses in Mando'a, and says,
"Commander Logan! General Ileema!"
Amu (amu - mom) and buir (buir - dad) come in, and he tells them that he needs to get me up to The Relentless as soon as is humanly possible, because they don't have a portable Xray machine down here. Amu (amu - mom) nods, and heads outside to get an LAAT ready. Buir (buir - dad) comes over to me and kisses my forehead. He or amu (amu - mom) both do that whenever I'm sick or in the MedBay. They've done it ever since I was little.
Ba'vodu (ba'vodu - uncle) Kya comes in to tell Wish that the LAAT is ready. Wish and Copper, one of our junior medics, get me onto a stretcher and take me into the LAAT. This is by far one of my least favorite ways to get back to the ship.
When we land in the ship, Wish and Copper take me into the MedBay, and get me into the Xray machine. I've done this a fair bit too. Mostly because of broken bones though. It takes a bit, but I'm done pretty quickly.
They stick me in a bacta tank for a bit after I'm done with my Xray. I guess it was bad enough to warrant the bacta tank. Even though they do get me out after about, I think, an hour.
"You were lucky this time, you know," Wish says after I've laid down on the bed again. I still have the oxygen mask on, but my breathing is better. "Don't you dare pull a stunt like that again or I'll confine you to this MedBay for a month."
My eyes widen and I violently shake my head, which starts another coughing fit. This one is less painful than the others. I lift up my hand and use battle sign to say 'okay, I won't'. Wish nods, and says,
"There are a couple of people who want to see you. So on a scale of 1 - 10, how painful are the coughs?"
I lift up my hand and show five fingers, then four.
"All right, around four or five. Does breathing hurt?"
I snap my thumb, index, and middle finger together in the sign for 'no'.
"Good. They can come in, but only for a few minutes. You pushed yourself today, dueling Grievous-" my eyes widen "Yes, we know about that. Commander Dalori told us about that. -inhaling smoke, and then running back to the camp as quickly as you did. So you are on orders to rest. And remember, Leeda'ika, I am your CMO, I outrank you when it comes to your health."
I nod, and lean back. He lets amu (amu - mom), buir (buir - dad), ba'vodu (ba'vodu - uncle) Kya, and Callum into the room. Amu (amu - mom) and buir (buir - dad) chide me for doing what I did, even though they both say that they're proud of me. Ba'vodu (ba'vodu - uncle) Kya does the same, but Callum stays silent.
Wish shoos amu (amu - mom), buir (buir - dad), and ba'vodu (ba'vodu - uncle) Kya out, but let's Callum stay for a few minutes.
"Thank you, for doing what you did. If you hadn't saved my butt I wouldn't probably be toast."
I smile at him, and gently shake my head. Then use battle sign to say 'I'm sure you would be fine'.
"Thanks. So… friends?"
I smile as wide as I can and nod twice. He manages to nod back to me before Wish shoos him out and pins me with a glare. Letting me know it's time to get some rest. I take a deep breath, and it finally doesn't result in a coughing fit, and relax. I have another friend, and this one is just as crazy as me… well, maybe not as crazy as me.
"New friends are like new adventures. You never know what lessons they will teach you." – Unknown