Chapter Eight

"Hey Comet, toss me two of those thermal detonators, and I'll be finished up over here," Aedan said.

Comet threw over the silver spheres, "You got it, General."

Suddenly the doors to their large room exploded inward, and all turned in defensive postures, weapons raised, to see what the threat was.

A luminescent, blazing blue Kyra Dawnstar stood inside the entrance, bathing the room in shimmering sapphire light, her lightsaber ignited in one hand, and the other extended. Her face looked like a mix of rage and despair. And then her eyes settled on Aedan, she looked him up and down, and then quickly glanced at the clone commando's, eyeing them oddly, and then relaxed her posture.

"Um, hi," Aedan said. "Everything…okay? Did you find the prisoners?"

The bright blue light radiating from her skin faded. She dropped her hand, and shut down her lightsaber, but she kept glancing towards Wolffe and his team. "Yes," she finally answered. "We found them. Hoppie is leading them away, then I ran into our old friend."

Aedan nodded, "I see. How did that go?"

She shrugged, still not taking her eyes off of the clones, "Oh you know, showed him some magic tricks, wrestled a bit. It was…enlightening. For him."

Aedan chuckled, "That's my girl."

She cleared her throat, "Aedan, can I talk to you?"

He saw the creases between eyebrows, her lips a thin line, and her eyes were still electric blue. She was very much worried and on high alert. Then he glanced around at the wolfpack, who all just stared at her through their helmets, except for Captain Wolfe who now had his holoprojector out, apparently receiving an incoming transmission. "Um, sure," he answered.

She motioned with her head that they walk outside of the room, and into the hallway.

The moment they made it out of sight and hearing distance of the clones, she whispered, "We have to get out of here."

"What, why?"

She shook her head. "Something is happening, or about to happen, I can't tell. Something terrible. I don't know what it is, but we must go, just you and me."

He held her gaze for all of three seconds, and then said, "Okay, let's go."

Kyra blinked rapidly, then narrowed her eyes. "Just like that?"

"Oh yea. I learned a long time ago to always trust your hunches."

Kyra smiled widely, and then they began walking away from the clones. "We just need to make sure the prisoners make it out safely, so we'll head to the hangar. Carefully."

"Got it, what about Sa'kard?"

She shook her head, "We'll just have to face him another day."

Aedan breathed sharply through his nostrils, "Fine. Let's go."

They began jogging back towards the hangar. "It shouldn't take too long to—"

The Force flashed. Black and white, audible, palpable shifts in the quantum entanglement of celestial energy.

Kyra shoved Aedan to the side, then whirled around, igniting her saber, and deflecting blaster bolts aimed right at them. Aedan, for perhaps the first time in his entire career as a Jedi hesitated. When he turned to see who was firing at them, his mind froze, his body stilled. After nearly three years of fighting alongside the men in white armor—bleeding with them, laughing with them, mourning with them—his brain could not handle the perception that they were firing on them.

It took all of three seconds for Aedan to be on his feet, lightsaber a blur, parrying incoming blasterfire from the wolfpack.

"Wolffe, what are you doing?" Aedan yelled.

The clone commander merely answered with return fire.

"Comet, Sinker," Aedan shouted, "What's going on? What are you doing?"

The commandos simply continued firing.

"Aedan," Kyra said, panic rising in her voice. "Aedan…Oh God."

Whatever was happening, Aedan was only getting a small glimpse of it from the Force. But Kyra was perceiving it all. And Aedan, being so attuned to Kyra, could feel agony and despair within her, and they were rising at alarming rates.

"Kyra," Aedan said, parrying more, blasterfire, "What is it?"

"Oh," she cried, both hands going to her head. "Aedan…they're dying. They're all dying."

He felt her falter, and stumble back. A blaster bolt grazed her arm, and she fell to the ground.

"Kyra!" he yelled, and stepped in front of her, taking up the incoming blasterfire from ten elite clones. He felt more clones converging on their location. Whatever the hell was going on, he had to get them out of here. He sent a monstrous frustration fueled force push forward, knocking half the wolfpack down. The remaining clones, he picked up, and flung into the nearby walls.

He knelt down, put his arm under Kyra, who was in some sort of shock, and began carrying her down the corridor.

The pain rolling off her was ripping him to pieces, he couldn't imagine what she was going through. Blasterfire shot at them from behind. He moved them both to the side, slipping into a small natural alcove in the rock wall, as laser bolts peppered the area. He reached out with the force, and sensed a dozen clones moving towards them, all hostile. He reached behind him and took out one of the thermal detonators he had in his pouch. He thumbed the activation switch, the tiny, but powerful explosive began beeping quickly. He felt the troopers near and cocked his arm back to throw.

His arm stayed.

And then sank back to his side.

He couldn't do it. Not to these troopers he had fought alongside for years. Not without answers first. Instead, he tossed the explosive at the ceiling, and held it in place with the force. He sprinted away, still focusing on keeping the sphere up there, and then the explosion thundered, and the ceiling came crashing down, sealing this hallway off. This bought him a few moments, and he used that time to check on Kyra.

She was sweating profusely, perspiration running down her forehead, damp hair clinging to her head. Her eyes were squeezed shut, her jaw locked tight, and her cheeks tensed. He centered himself in the infinite energy field, and then looked deep into Kyra.

A hammer blow of suffering sent him reeling back out of his small trip into her mind.

He gasped, "What in the holy force?"

All he could sense was an unfathomable abyss of despair, and somehow Kyra was engulfed by it.

"I…I can feel them all slipping away."

"Who?"

She grimaced, "The Jedi," she whispered. "Dying." And then she slumped in his arms.

That made no sense whatsoever to him. He lifted her up on his shoulder and began jogging down the hall. Later. He would figure it out later. Maybe Master Yoda or the other council members could help her. He needed to get her back to the temple.

The force sent him a warning, and he lunged to the side, Kyra still on his shoulder, as an RPG round zipped by his head, impacting the wall ten meters behind him, and filling the corridor once again with rubble. Well, at least I don't have to watch behind me for a while.

Then he peaked around and saw who had shot at him. Three clone commandos in dark gray armor.

"Guys," he said, drawing out the word. "Is there something I should be aware of?"

Blasterfire erupted from the three clones, and Aedan laid Kyra to the side, a stone pillar barely obstructing them from incoming fire. He heard the loading mechanism on the RPG launcher being operated, and his body temperature flared. His teeth gnashed together. He could hear his heart pounding in his ears and feel his blood start to boil.

"What the frak are you doing?" he screamed as laser bolts peppered the rock he was hiding behind. "We're your allies! We fought next to you for years! Why are you doing this?"

The blasterfire ceased for a moment, the corridor disturbingly silent. "Orders, General," one of them answered, and then punctuated it with another volley of DC-17 laser bolts. "It's just orders."

Aedan felt scorching heat rise within. Felt it spread through him, igniting his limbs, and flaring up in his heart. Anger he had done so well to control, to harness, to eliminate, exploded from him.

The cage he had so carefully built, shattered.

"Orders?" he asked in a voice that was not his own.

"Yes, Sir. And we must follow them."

He set Kyra down on the ground, refusing to look at her. She could have no part in his mind for what he was about to do.

"That," he sneered, "Is a problem."

He zipped around his cover so quickly that even the seasoned, battle savvy troopers of the Cobalt Squad were momentarily startled. But they recovered, and opened fire. Aedan intercepted their blasterfire effortlessly with his blade and deflected it back. He was moving so quickly, that he was within striking distance in less than a second. He sliced through Link's rifle, then began spinning. Halfway through his spin he landed a heel kick into the sergeant's sternum, crushing the armor, and sending the trooper flying back against the wall. He continued his spin, and dishanded rook who was trying to track Aedan with his rifle, but not quickly enough. Pogo was taking aim a little beyond Rook, and to the side, so Aedan merely stepped to his right, putting Rook, who with his one remaining hand was reaching for a knife, in the line of fire, negating Pogo's shot. He Force-fully threw Rook into his comrade, and they fell in a heap of gunmetal grey armor. He turned to see Link raising his sidearm not at Aedan, but at the still catatonic Kyra laying in the fetal position on the ground.

The point-blank force push came out on reflex, and blasted Link into the wall with such ferocity that blood immediately splashed against the rock surface. The fire had consumed Aedan and there was nothing to stop it from burning the world down around him.

A laser bolt lanced right through Aedan's shoulder from behind, he rolled forward, turned, and deflected the follow up laser blasts, both striking true against his attacker, downing Pogo.

Rook climbed to his feet and brandished the same knife. Aedan, using the Force, gripped the clone's hand and began moving it upward. Rook struggled, even tried blocking the ascending knife with his other arm, but the blade never stopped moving upward until it was buried in his throat. The final commando collapsed to the ground.

Aedan stood there, blinking rapidly, breathing heavy, corpses of his former friends lying around his feet. He could smell the blood, saw it seeping towards his brown leather boots ever so slowly. And he could still hear Pogo's raspy, labored breathing.

He knelt down next to the fallen trooper. Aedan sensed his lung and liver had been hit. Without immediate aid, he would die.

"Why?" he whispered, "Why are you doing this?"

"We…have to obey," Pogo choked out. "It's within us. To follow orders without question."

Aedan shook his head, still in disbelief. "Who gave the order?"

Pogo swallowed, "The…Chancellor."

"I don't believe it," Aedan said, grabbing Pogo's arm. "Why would the Chancellor want to kill two Jedi."

Pogo coughed out a laugh. "Not…two," he said, the light inside him fading fast. "All." And then his spark in the force vanished, and the last of the elite commando fireteam died.

Aedan shook his head, then looked back to Kyra, who was still wracked with agony. Could it be? Is that why she's like this because all of the Jedi are being killed off?

He shut his eyes, shaking his head. It can't be. This can't be happening.

He stood back up, and that's when he finally saw the horror and carnage of what he had done. He had killed in anger. No, slaughtered in anger.

He let out a breath, that came out as a sob.

But his dark introspection was short lived, as another squad of troopers was fast approaching, and he was about to be cornered against the collapsed corridor. He quickly picked Kyra up, and started jogging forward when the clones came around the corner. They had the drop on him. He let Kyra fall, ignited his blade, and parried the incoming shots. One did make it through and scorched his left thigh, but he was able to return the others back, taking out half of the assailants.

The remaining clones ceased fire and held their positions. The corridor going silent once more.

What were they waiting for?

Then he felt more clones coming.

The clever bastards were waiting for reinforcements, hoping to overwhelm him.

"Kyra, I need you," he said, but she was still unresponsive. Aedan took a deep breath, trying to center himself, but the horrors of the day, Kyra's condition, and his recent actions had taken their toll on him. The force was difficult to grasp at the moment.

He felt an entire platoon's worth of clones converge on their position, and dread filled him. How could he get by dozens of them in this state. He shook his head, how had it all gone so wrong?

He peeked around his cover and saw the clones preparing to advance. This would be it. This would be the end. He glanced down at Kyra, then back up at the troops. How to go out? In a blaze of glory fighting or holding the one he loved.

He began to kneel down next to her, when he heard shouts of alarm, and cries of panic and pain. He quickly looked back out at the troops that should have been attacking at any moment.

But they were the ones being attacked. A swarm of ravenous, angry colicoids had attacked from behind, and Aedan now saw why the bug species were always spoken of with ominous, disturbed tones. The colicoids were able to use weapons, but in this instance they didn't. They used their pincers and teeth to literally tear through the ranks of clone troopers. Aedan watched as a lead colicoid stabbed its front pincer through a trooper's chest, then leaped onto another clone, biting clean through the helmet, and then suddenly turn into a ball, and roll through other troopers, knocking them down, until finally it was put down with dozens of blaster shots.

Aedan, knowing he had to get out of their fast, and taking advantage of the clones distraction, activated his saber. He put his hand against the wall and reached out with the Force. The rock wall was over a meter thick. He didn't think he'd have the time, but he would try. He jammed his lightsaber into the wall, and held it there, rotating it slowly. Within ten seconds the wall turned bright red, another ten and it was turning orange. Another thirty seconds of him rotating his saber, and moving it in a small circular motion, and a large patch of the wall had turned molten, and began falling to the floor in gobs. The heat was immense, and he had to erect force shields around his hands to keep them from burning. After another minute, a large section of the wall was gone, and a small hole was forming. The firing down the corridor had stopped. "Oh, kriff," he whispered, and glanced back down towards the clones.

He wished he hadn't. He had never seen so much blood before. Not in three years of brutal warfare had he seen such carnage. Bodies were strewn about, mostly in pieces. However, it looked like all of the colicoids were down as well, as each bug was either rolled up into a ball unmoving, apparently a death reflex, or on their backs legs and pincers sticking up into the air.

He heard clicking. Fast clicking, and it was getting louder. A screeching, bloodied bug leapt out at him from behind a boulder, pincers stabbing downward at him. Aedan dropped his unignited saber and caught the two appendages in his bare hands centimeters before they impaled him through the chest. The strength of the attack did knock him back into the wall. The ravenous creature bore down on him, and then lunged forward with his long neck, the bug's mandibles, still coated in trooper blood and gore, snapped down at his face. Aedan ducked to the side and waited for the next attack. The colicoid, clearly frustrated, over committed and attempted to bite down again, but Aedan moved the pincer in his right hand at the last second, the vicious bug biting down on his own pincer, the sharp appendage shooting right through the roof of the creature's mouth. Aedan pushed the big bug to the side, recalled his lightsaber, and scanned for anymore walking nightmares or childhood terrors.

While the path ahead looked clear, he knew more troops and more bugs were inbound, so he decided to make use of his handiwork, and stepped through the hole, and then dragged a still catatonic Kyra through the opening. He hoisted her up and began carrying her on his shoulder across another empty room. He exited this new room away from the recent battlefield, and saw a set of stairs, and took those down one level, trying to put distance between his last known location.

The fatigue was really setting in now, the long day of fighting had taken its toll. Kriff, it had been a long week of fighting. Agora, and the battle on the luminance was five days ago. He came to the end of another corridor, and had to let Kyra down, the ache in his back and shoulder too much to bear. "Kyra," he said, "I'm on my last bit of strength here. I need you. Please."

Finally, this produced a response in Kyra, as her perpetual grimace softened ever so slightly. She gave him a slight nod. He gripped her and helped her to her feet and was relieved when he felt her legs moving on their own and supporting most of her weight.

"Not too much farther," he said, as he stepped towards the double doors.

They swooshed open and there stood a clone commando, blaster pistol raised and pointed at Aedan's head. There was a light grey stripe going down his helmet and the side of his armor.

"No," Aedan breathed, "Hoppie, please."

The trooper didn't move. Didn't respond. Aedan's shoulder slumped, the last bit of energy leaving him. Not Hoppie. How could this have happened? All of it…for nothing. He liked to think we would be at peace when the end came, but he wasnt. Life had just begun for him. He exhaled, and then closed his eyes.