Hey Force Fans, welcome back!

So, this chapter does get violent, and has a rather graphic depiction of war and death. After this, however, we're back to more T rated writing. Just a heads up.

Enjoy!

Chapter Three

The initial scramble down the hill was a nightmare. Body parts and blood littered the demolished hillside. Pieces of white armor were everywhere. Wounded troopers, some half stuck in the ground, others missing limbs, reached out for help. The twelve remaining commandos did their absolute best to help the hurt and struggling to their feet.

A badly burned hand shot out at Kyra. "Please," the clone said. "Please help." Kyra stared in horror at a clone whose entire right side of his body was a charred black mess. She reached down to grab him, but as she did, he collapsed to the ground. Kyra felt the life slip away from him through the force. Her stomach lurched. Her knees buckled. An explosion hit the ground ten meters away, the impact knocking her off her feet, a shower of dust and debris rained down on her. She coughed and sputtered, her breathing coming gasps. The sickly coppery scent of blood filled her nostrils, fogging her brain. She clenched her jaw shut, climbing to her feet quickly.

She stumbled away, and then felt hands clutch at her ankles. Another clone, his lower body buried in the ground, begging for help. "Here, I've got you," she said, and reached down, trying to pull him out of the soft soil. She pulled backward hard, and he was freed far too easily, causing her to fall backwards on her rear. Getting to her feet, she stared in horror as the trooper's legs were completely gone. He had been blown in half. Blood spilled from his mouth and this brave soldier fell lifeless before her.

She stumbled away. Black spots filled her view. Waves of dizziness and nausea plagued her. Despair wrapped around her. She turned in circles, the battle raging on around her. So many had died. And there would be so many more. Her breath was coming in ragged gasps, vision getting dimmer by the second. She couldn't focus. Couldn't get her bearings back. She didn't know where the Force was, much less how to reach for it. She just kept shaking her head. For one, trying to clear it so she could see, and two to shake the images from her head.

But the darkness had won. Misery and hopelessness swarming her. Tendrils of dread began snaking up into her mind and blocking out the light. This was it. The world lurched, and down she fell into that black abyss.

A hand grasped her shoulder, firm, warm and familiar. "Kyra," someone shouted. "Kyra, wake up."

"So much death," she mumbled.

The strong hands shook her, "Please, Kyra."

"I can't."

"Come back to me."

She shook her head.

Arms wrapped around her, "Find your peace," he said in her ear. "I need you."

Her vision cleared. That trigger sending her mind and body into its programmed script. She concentrated on the image of peace she always held in her mind. After focusing on her breathing, her lungs and heart returned to normal. The force was with her. It had never left. She breathed in deeply, and was able to stand. She looked Aedan in the eyes and nodded. She could feel the droids closing in on them from above the ridgeline. This shocked Kyra back into action. It was move or die. Within moments she was back to expertly navigating the descent down. She wasn't ready to die. Not yet.

To her right she noticed their ragtag group of survivors were not the only ones left alive. Cody and two of his A-squad troopers were still alive, and making their way down as well, picking up wounded as they could.

The rest of the scamper became much, much worse, as the droid army began firing down the hill. "Guess we're up," Aedan said, as he and Kyra began deflecting the blasterfire while backpedaling down the steep, uneven, corpse-laden soil. It proved quite difficult, both tumbling backwards several times, but getting up, sinking back into the force, and blocking the incoming fire.

The two Jedi and ten soldiers had now turned into two Jedi and sixty soldiers, and the distance down the acclivity was covered in a cautious sprint, and other times a wild tumble, the ground being so precarious, and all the while laser blasts reigned down upon them. Aedan and Kyra did their best, but the angles were all wrong, and they couldn't stop all of the blasts, and they lost some of the straggling troopers, and two of the Foxtrot Commandos. But finally, they reached the bottom of the hill, and skirted towards their original landing zone where the two reserve platoons remained.

"Drix," Aedan shouted, "You and your team scout out another place where the gunships can land, and where we can defend ourselves until they arrive. Because this location isnt feasible for defense, in fact, we'd get slaughtered once they reached this canyon top and fired down into us."

"Copy that, General," he said, and turned to his squad, "Foxtrot, you heard the General. Fan out, and find us a better spot." The commando squad dispersed.

Aedan saw Cody and Obi-Wan climbing down into the pit and jogged toward them. "They set a trap for us, General," Cody said grimly, "And we walked right into it."

Kyra walked up, and put her hand on his orange painted armor, "Cody, I...I'm sorry. We didn't sense it until it was too late."

Cody shook his head, "Word is you two saved a dozen men."

"That's not enough."

"To them it is," he said, then looked at one of his A-squad members, "Corporal, give me a report of the enemies numbers and position."

"Yes, Sir," the solider saluted, and quickly climbed up the ten-foot wall of the canyon and gazed out at the battlefield before him. He then yelled down to Cody and the Jedi, "Two battalions worth of battle droids and super battle droids. They're halfway down the hill side. We've got minutes before they're here."

"We're down to a company of troopers," Cody said looking at the survivors.

"A hundred and fifty soldiers against two thousand droids," Kyra said dismayed, "We've got to get out of here."

"Commander, what's the situation upstairs?"

Cody shrugged, "Still battling it out with the dreadnaughts," then yelled at his corporal that was still surveying the incoming force, "Come down, Corporal,"

"Rog-"

They didn't hear the laser blast, but they felt the repercussion as the corporal's body fell backwards onto them. A smoking blast wound in his helmet."

"Damnit!" Cody yelled, and unholstered his blaster, then began scrambling up the wall, cursing and grunting his way up. Aedan and Kyra quickly grabbed him before he crested the lip.

"Commander," someone yelled from behind, "We've found a place to dig in. A wide open patch of rock with its Eastern side covered by rock. Only way in is a narrow passageway."

Aedan and Kyra shared a look, "Here we go again," Aedan muttered.

Cody, gathered his wits, and began barking orders, "Battalion, move out."

"We'll bring up the rear, and hold the passage."

Cody nodded, "We'll give you a fireteam as well."

The 150 or so survivors began following Drix and Hoppie over the crags and crevices or hardened grey rock. They made it just to the passage as the separatists got within range and began firing.

"General, Commanders," Hoppie said, "Why don't we just lay some charges and collapse the passageway so they can't get through?"

Aedan nodded knowingly, but had already thought of that, "Then they'll just flank us to the sides, or somehow start going over the walls. This way," Aedan gestured toward the five meter wide passageway, "they'll focus their attack here, and we can hold them off for much longer."

Obi-wan nodded as well, "Hoppie, get in contact with those gunships, and get them down here now. Drix," the Jedi Master continued, "We'll need a fireteam here with us, and make sure the LZ is covered on all sides if they do decide to send flanking units."

"Yes, Sir," the commandos responded.

Obi-Wan turned to face the two other Jedi. "Well, shall we hold the line?"

Aedan nodded, and Kyra grinned, answering, "And show that few can stand against many."

The three Jedi moved halfway down the cut through the rock and readied themselves as the droids approached, standing in a line. The mechanical fiends opened fire, but once again only a handful of them could get shots off due to the close quarters. The Jedi were a blur of glorious movement as they parried the blasterfire with expertise and elegance. Nothing got through them. Hundreds upon hundreds of laser blasts were fired upon them, and the trio of warriors sent every shot back towards the shooters, most of the time landing a clean hit and taking down a droid.

A pile of scrap metal began building up. The Jedi didn't need to communicate this to each other, and continued to send fire back at the droids, causing the pile to grow with each downed mechanical corpse. The incoming fire lessened drastically as there was a barrier blocking the droids' line of fire. The droids were forced to start climbing over there fallen allies. And droids do not climb well, so they made for easy targets.

"Foxtrot," Obi-Wan shouted, "You're up."

The commandos opened fire without a word, picking off any droid that crested the pile with a perfectly aimed headshot. Kyra looked over to Hoppie who was blasting away with his DC-15A rifle. She reached out with the force, and once again pulled the sidearm from his holster. This time however, she began firing away alongside him, joining in on the Clone troopers rain of fire.

Hoppie continued firing, and shouted out, "Commander, just wanted to revisit the date notion."

Kyra smiled, and proceeded to shoot down droid after droid, "While I am flattered, Corporal, I must tell you that I am spoken for."

This caused Hoppie to cease firing, "What?"

Kyra turned and glanced towards Aedan and gave him a piercing look. "I'm a Jedi, and I belong to the Jedi order," she said giving Hoppie a wink.

"Oh," Hoppie said, "Right. Of course," and resumed blasting away.

The time between shots was at least five seconds, as the passageway was completely plugged up. "Quite the strategy," Obi-Wan said.

"Yea," Aedan responded, "This is kind of our go-to. On Tython and Geonosis we employed the same tactics."

Kenobi smiled, "You'll have to tell me all about it. Perhaps on our ride out of here. Speaking of which," he faced Drix, "Any word on our birds?"

"Supposed to be on their way, General."

"I sure do hope so," Obi-Wan said, then stiffened. Aedan and Kyra did as well a second later. "Incoming!" Kenobi yelled.

The pile of droids was blasted into bits, as a cannon had fired into the wreckage, destroying the barrier. Now they could see an armored assault tank had been positioned at the far end of the entryway, enabling it to fire through the narrow split. "Get to cover," Aedan yelled, "It's reloading." The three Jedi and the remaining Foxtrot commandos sprinted away from the behemoth.

Kyra felt the ripple and yelled, "Get down!" and then dove to the rocky ground as a tank round shot right over her head. The Jedi ducked in time. The commandos didn't. The explosive ordinance hit the corridor wall just to the side of the clones and blew the entire squad apart.

Kyra, horror gripping her tight, hopped to her feet and sprinted to the fallen soldiers. "Kyra," Aedan shouted, "We have to collapse the tunnel. We need your help." And then Aedan and Obi-Wan began reaching out with the force, attempting to pull the sides of passageway down.

Kyra shook her head, and ran over to one of the downed Commandos, reached in his pack, and pulled out a bandolier of grenades. She pulled the pin on one of them and flung the entire bandolier as far as she could in front of the two Jedi yelling, "Fire in the hole!"

Aedan and Obi-Wan scrambled away from the explosives, and the grenades detonated with a resounding boom, reverberating down the canyon walls so loudly Kyra had to cover her ears, as she dropped to the ground, the other two Jedi landing right beside her.

Once they regained their senses, they quickly rushed towards the downed commandos. A handful of the other surviving troopers were jogging over to them as well to help. The commandos all lay in a mess of slate grey armor splashed with red. Kyra rushed to each one, most had obvious, mortal wounds, but she checked the pulse anyway. With each lifeless corpse her heart sank lower and lower. After the fifth she couldn't go on. She couldn't search for another non-existent pulse. She dropped to her knees and vomited on the ground, tears streaming down her dirt smudged face.

"We've got a live one here," Aedan yelled, causing several of the troopers to sprint over and give aid. Kyra ran over to assist as well. A small bit of relief entered her heart.

"Hoppie," she whispered, and knelt beside him, seeking him out through the force and assessing his injuries. She saw a lot of blood splattered all over the left side of his armor, but he didn't appear to have any wounds to the front. They pulled off his helmet and turned him over, seeing a superficial wound to the back of his head. Kyra put her hand on the wound and sensed that it wasn't anything serious. "He'll need stitches, and probably has a concussion, but he's relatively unharmed. So, whose blood is this?"

Obi-Wan, left fist held in front of his mouth, right first underneath his left elbow, nodded towards a body nearby. Kyra rolled the mutilated body over and whatever relief she felt earlier evaporated. "Drix," she said.

"It looks like Drix shielded Hoppie from most of the blast. There's no way to tell, but I'd wager Drix did it intentionally."

"I know he did," Kyra said.

Aedan sighed, "Come on, we're not out of this yet."

Cody was barking orders to the troops, directing forces to the flanks, and setting up firing positions. He had cordoned off a large patch of rock where the gunships would land, and then grouped off a well-protected section of rock nearby where the injured were placed. And there was a lot of injured, leaving only about seventy able-bodies troopers. And three very capable Jedi.

"Commander," Aedan called out, "Where do you want us?"

"Wherever the fighting is the toughest. Until then, split up to either side. I don't think they'll try and surmount the canyon walls, so protect the flanks."

"Aye, aye, Commander," Obi-Wan said, and then faced Aedan and Kyra, "I'll take the Northern side."

"And we'll take the Southern. Good luck, Kenobi."

"And you also."