Good day friends,

We are probably… by my math about six chapters from the end of this story. It saddens me, but also makes me look forward to what is to come. There are major events to come – and I only hope that I not only give them justice but that I honor my characters. Please let me know what you all think so far, and keep looking forward to the next chapter.

Happy Writing,

Eliana

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The hunter that terrorized them all through the forcefield had suddenly become a moot point to the thousands of eyes that stared past him to the valley beyond. Behind their heads the echoing shots of blasters and the humming yells of their defenders who stood against the droids melted into a hollow wall of white noise. Two standard hours ago the slavers, hired killers, and their servants had begun to climb the mountain. They were pushing forward in droves.

The Togruta on the midpoint of the western wall, half a mountain away from Eddy and the others and a mile from the remnants of the hospital by the lake, were the ones who watched the absolute slaughter below them. The clones had plowed their way straight through the rumbling sea of Outsiders, littering the ground with black blood and gore that was trampled into the desperately thirsty ground. When their ranks had gone their three separate ways, the protection of the ancestors had faltered as they parted.

That alone was the beginning of the de-evolution of the seemingly indestructible movement of the clone mass… but they had begun a different strategy that was unfolding before the eyes of the terrified prey that hid behind the shield.

Cedric and Campion had led their marks, the eight thousand between them, to flank the mass. In the time that had passed, their observers could say they never stopped moving – between the strikes of swords, maneuvers of the groups as a unit, the brandishing of the shields, they were reminiscent of a stampeding herd of kryzen runners. None among the Togruta understood why it was that the groups were preferring to step their enemies back instead of simply ending their lives, but their eyes were not for these maneuvers.

They were for the carnage that was driving the black sea of bodies toward the two funneling marks.

Djibourdi, Sam, and Bones were within a different conflict entirely. They had also yet to cease their movements, but around the eight thousand clones that fought with everything within them was a snowfall of blood, gore, and drenched soil that turned to black mud. Steel-bottomed boots tore through it with vengeance, the two humming lightsabers ending the lives of two more enemies as the padawan galloped by.

The most cunning of tricks had drawn the Outsiders in. The padawan, to his credit, had led a quarter of his men down the makeshift log defense laid by Rex. It was designed as a ploy to protect the border, to create an image that the ranks had been so devastated by the initial charge that this group of clones were all alone. They had made a stand there, a coordinated alteration of ranged blaster bolts and marching groups that it seemed (to any unsuspecting) as though they would be easy prey.

Enraged and tempted the Outsiders had stormed forward to the clones who, desperately outnumbered, were forced to defend in their formations of shield and weaponry… until their commander, with an echoing scream that rippled through the surging line of runners, came raining down on their enemies with a vengeance. Initially he had led the group down the wall, then slipped quietly away through the litter of bodies to his praetorian. He had told Sam to take them the long way around, that their attackers would blindly follow his ruse.

He hadn't been wrong. So methodical was this maneuver that the formations had started to turn the horde against themselves in confusion.

It was, Djibourdi told himself as he pivoted around another Outsider that met his end, a mercy that his friends weren't able to see him this far away. What would they think of him as they watched him take one life after the other, without so much as an afterthought?

The dark grey sky was just as shadowed as his heart. The gentle humming of the heartstone on his left wrist and the pulsing band on his right sang a soothing melody amid the insanity. Even in this madness, there was peace.

His mind had long disconnected from the searing agony of his now free-bleeding arm and the razor-like rumbling in his lungs, the distant taste of bitter blood burning his throat had convinced him to protect himself from his fear. Easily, his mark had dealt with a couple thousand of these devils… and it wouldn't be long until –

His legs forced him to stop as they shook with exertion. The enemy did just as he had hoped, and between the bodies of the Reapers who had drawn closer to defend him in his weakness he watched the black ranks snap. Djibourdi's sharp, long-toned whistle (accented by the snarling bark of the fox by his side) was the signal to his commanding clones. It was acted on quickly.

"Drive them on!" Bones's command moved his mark after the Outsiders, herding them to the other marks a half mile southeast.

Sam's mark was quick behind them, and through his wheezing breath the smallest of smiles teased Djibourdi's lips. A soft grunt let him jump to the top of a jutting boulder, a fine vantage point to see if his plan was working. If he and his men could do this, and Ahsoka could do her part, they might actually have a chance.

It was going according to plan. It was going to plan before his eyes - bloodshot, painfilled, and weary - turned toward the rumbling waves of sound that called his attention to the distance. Whatever pain he was in was washed away by a surge of adrenaline.

Sam and Bones had caught sight of the same thing he did, and when they came to a sudden halt so did the war cries and thundering steps of the clones below the boulder Djibourdi perched himself on. Between the three, looks of numbed horror reflected the mortal terror that shot among them.

There, in the distance yet fully in sight, were five moving mountains.

Behind the shield, the familiar shock of confusion forced an unnatural silence across the mass of Togruta. That silence allowed the rumbling, trumpeting calls of the threshers to surge to them all.

From where he stood that long distance away, Eddy felt his entire body numb. What he was witnessing in front of him was carnage… and it was about to turn into a massacre.

Threshers were creatures of legend. They were massive, two legged and two armed reptiles, armed with massive teeth and ravenous claws – stories told of them by the elders whispered of them consuming mountains. Today, driven by the chains that imprisoned them and the Outsiders on their backs, their thundering steps were aimed to consume Djibourdi and his men.

Djibourdi didn't know when or how these massive animals had made it into the valley, but when they swung their heads with a snarl and started their run it hardly seemed to matter. The clones had found themselves trapped in a wedge of two sloping hills with their backs to a wall.

'You need to move them, Red!'

He could swear that Warren was calling out those words to him, and they shook him from his frigid position of fear.

Red lips twitched and white teeth flashed. Lightsabers deactivated Djibourdi let loose the sharp whistle from his montrals to call his clones to order.

"Form the line!" was his order, and the thousands below him scrambled into position.

Six lines, shoulder to shoulder they stood. Their breath was harsh in their lungs, marked by their recent skirmish. The fox at the front of the formation snapped its teeth with a vigorous swish of its tail at the oncoming danger – gone were the other ancestors, perhaps retreating themselves at the swallowing sea of death.

Djibourdi's voice called over them, his words not understood by the civilians behind the wall. The Echani words were clear and spoken with intent. Accent heavy with exhaustion, marked by fear, the padawan's orders met the ears of his praetoria who moved to ready themselves.

Then, with a summoning roar, Djibourdi leapt over his lines with lightsabers humming, eyes pinned to the enraged mountains that were thundering to meet them. He was going right to them. The men of his mark calling and stampeding to follow his path.

The Togruta behind the wall were powerless to do anything more than watch as the stampede of clones moved, as fast as they possibly could, straight out of the crevice of the hills before they split in two. Sam and Bones tore hard to the right and Djibourdi to the left, the flowing of bodies behind them kicking up dust and sand and mud in their desperation to get out of the path of danger. Their determination to get free was successful – until the full-mouthed, tooth-bearing roar brought the massive animals into their path.

Mortal screams and clashing durasteel filled the air amid the thundering stomps that either crushed the men or sent them sailing through the air. The clone lines kept moving, circling up and around their attackers. Sharpened steel and shot arrows rained down on them from the Outsiders that had taken refuge on the animals' backs, and their clear advantage of location had their shots meeting mark after mark while the fleeing clones met nothing but air.

It was a scramble filled with chaos and pain. The best the humans could manage against such titans was to keep their feet moving and aim for the drivers that prodded the poor animals into the fray. Ahsoka, mind torn between the enclosed battle and the droids that slowly climbed up the back end of the mountain, was grateful for her body's reaction as a stray bolt skimmed her cheek.

"Snips, the ledge!" Anakin's voice screamed over to her, and the azure eyes turned to spy the few that had begun to scramble up the lower cliffedge.

They weren't there for long. Neither was the jutting stone they used to gain leverage.

Both Jedi were well-coated in sweat, sand, and blood, their palms and fingers long ago worn down from the absolute onslaught of droids that just…kept coming. The blaster shots from behind the makeshift defense wall rained down on the droids, as if they came screaming from the darkened clouds above that blocked the sun.

Behind that cover, the moons edged ever closer to their position. Shili had begun to throw her fever.

The Togruta that guarded the ridge wondered if it wouldn't be enough, shot after shot screaming from their weapons into the gathering scourge below. Ahsoka had done what her friend asked, and as she sucked in a hard breath, the final flashing disc dug into her clenched hand. The other two were beneath the stomping feet of the moving droids and their slaver directors, one on each side of the overseeing ridge.

The last, the one blinking and humming in her palm, was the only one she hadn't planted yet. It was the most important one, Djibourdi had pressed to her. He never explained why.

She had to get that sensor as far away from them and as far into the oncoming group as she could. She hadn't expected the sheer number of droids that would come to them, and her plans kept changing. Just as Anakin did, she caught her breath and was back into the fray, her one free hand felling droid after droid after droid. They wouldn't stop coming.

Inside the wall of the palisades one of the threshers roared, its head turned sharply to the right and its steps stumbling as it was pulled directly toward another of its kind. The Outsider that had directed it was headless and hung limply from the chain wrapped through the animal's mouth. His weight turned the animal directly into the charging path of his allies, and the deafening crash sent both of the threshers (and their soon to be dead captors) into the blood-laden soil.

Just before they impacted the ground, the red-skinned padawan shot beneath them to his next target.

Djibourdi's breath was harsh and bubbling, the scalding bursts of copper blood erupting to coat his teeth as he panted with his strides. His vision had begun to grey, but the screech of the Algol and the scaled terroristic monster that tormented his people behind him brought a renewed drive handle their attackers. The humming of the heartstone against his wrist and the lightly flashing band on the other reminded him what he had to do.

He would crawl back to them.

His ability to focus the Force within himself was growing more demanding by the second… he had to make every second count.

Djibourdi felt the growl and the snarl that rumbled his throat and allowed them to sound freely. He let out a gasping, determined breath that emerged a low trill and shot through the legs of one of the standing threshers that thundered by, the clicking and shifting durasteel lines of armor moving to form around his forearms and create claws upon his fingers.

The animal that he aimed for charged to him, mouth open and ready for its prey – the prey that grabbed ahold of one of its scales, held tight as it threw its head back in rage, and turned targeting golden eyes to the Outsiders on the animal's back.

The same look was pinned to the super battle droid rocket trooper that Ahsoka grappled with. She was easily blocking its blaster bolts where it chose to hover over her head, but it seemed almost as though it had some semblance of understanding that she was beginning to tire. In all reality the padawan had plenty of energy to spare and the approaching lines of droids in the crevice below her were now her main concern.

What was actually happening to make her hesitate just slightly in her motions was her mind.

Moving rapidly.

Struggling to know what to do.

Trying to block out the screams and whimpers of the terrified people she protected.

Desperate to not focus on the roars and thundering crashes coming from within the Palisade walls.

Actively trying to not spend energy to find out if her friend was okay by reaching through the Force.

Attempting to not get overwhelmed with the drive to plant the sensor in her palm for her friend.

She had to get this sensor into the middle of the approaching enemies, she had to somehow get it from here to there but she couldn't risk her position… how was she supposed to do this?!

Curse Djibourdi, she huffed in her head, it was just like him to leave her a riddle like this without so much as a hint of what to do! He had shown her how to hear everything around her and move without her eyes, he hadn't taught her how to fl –

The most satisfied of smirks marked her face, the proverbial light bulb clicking on above her head. Without a spare thought she was raising her hand and pulling the flying droid down with the Force, its auditory output registering a shocked 'Gah!' as it was brought to her level. Swiftly she leapt over it and onto its back, sliding the sensor between the armored plates and pulling her weight to aim the droid back toward where it had come from.

"See ya!" She told it with a sharp slash of her lightsaber across its jetpack.

The malfunctioning device shot the droid out from beneath her with an undignified yell, and when her boots found solid ground she quickly pressed the activation button. It flashed with a warble, a softly blinking blue light carrying her signal to all the commanding clones, her friend, and her master. The satisfied smile on her lips turned to a frown of worry as she quickly leapt up to where Anakin stood, barely dodging the onslaught of blaster bolts that were aimed at her.

"We've got to hold this ridge!" Anakin shouted down to all of the defenders, then his eyes turned to Ahsoka, "What's this signal for, Ahsoka?"

He was indicating the blinking light on his arm. She didn't know how to tell him that she didn't know. They had stationed themselves above their protective wall and in front of their allies, and standing here reminded her just how vulnerable they all really were.

She wanted to answer, but instead only managed a soft:

"Dji –"

Before both herself and her master both swung their lightsaber to fell an incoming droid. They were both short on breath. They were both exhausted. Both of them felt their arms fill with lead when they raised them to face the marching mass below them.

"Are you ready to go a few more rounds, Snips?"

"Always, Skyguy."

They were destined to lose this fight by all accounts… but they edged together until their shoulders touched, their breaths were quick but even, and their grips both clenched their lightsabers. There on the ridge were the two Jedi prepared to give whatever it took to win this bout, and the deep breath that filled Ahsoka's lungs left them a moment later as a threatening hiss.

The sound of the approaching droids was all-consuming.

Step.

Step.

Step.

Clicks of prepared weapons.

Step.

Step.

St-

Then the approaching whistle of an object soaring through the air at high speed.

Then the crunching of rock and stone and durasteel as they were consumed by force and fire – the same force that ricocheted back and knocked both Ahsoka and Anakin off their feet and momentarily blinded them with a flash of light.

A missile.

A missile had flown right over them and devastated the approaching droid mass… all that was left of them were bits and pieces, melting in the fiery crater that had been created. Despite the ringing in his ears, Anakin registered the shocked, unnatural silence that rolled over the thousands behind him. He and Ahsoka scrambled to their feet, then turned bewildered faces to each other.

"How?" Ahsoka's question came out as a whisper instead of its intended demand.

Her master opened his mouth to answer. He would never find the words.

His face changed expression to one of sudden realization as the hairs on the back of his neck stood straight on end, the oddest of sounds coming from the valley below sending goosebumps across his skin. It was a roar, one that he had never heard before… one that made his padawan turn with him to look back down into the valley as a cold wave of energy poured into them both.

"We found a fleet of downed fighters. We salvaged what we could from the destroyed ones."

"And you just left the functioning ones out there?!"

Tombur spared him an amused smile.

"I didn't say that."

The Force focused their vision for them, directed their awareness to where that sound had come from. Even without the binoculars they used to see further, the Force painted a clear image of what was below them. Djibourdi, bloodied and roughly breathing through growling breaths, climbed onto the boulder that the thresher had crashed into when his sleep suggestion took hold.

Sam, his Reapers, Bones, and a cluster of clones marched behind him back toward the destroyed hospital. The weapons formed over his arms glowed a threatening icy blue that flashed through the shadowy darkness, the smallest bolts of stored energy zapping from them.

Djibourdi's breath was snarled as he raised one hand and pressed a control on Tombur's gauntlet. The forcefield roof guarding the valley fell with a withering hum.

All at once, Anakin understood. It took him a moment to find his voice.

When Djibourdi pulled in another growling breath and bared bloodied teeth with that howling roar, the fighters came flying down out of the clouds.

Her master's words echoed in Ahsoka's mind.

"You clever fox."

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So Shili begins her fever. Perhaps she will be merciful.

Happy Writing,

Eliana