The War

The Fall of Sinya

Jaelyn couldn't sleep. She laid for hours in bed, overcome with a strange feeling of dread. She couldn't figure out why she had this feeling, what had happened for her to feel so off.

She fell asleep knowing that something was wrong.

She woke up in the morning feeling restless. Although she couldn't remember her dreams, she felt like she'd been plagued by nightmares. Maybe it was because of the status on Cato Neimoidia that had her feeling so strange. In the month that they'd been fighting here, she'd had almost no success at all. First she nearly killed herself trying to get her men to the surface, and since then they were gradually getting picked off like flies, her casualties were rising fast with nothing to show for it. For the first time fighting in the war, she felt like she failed them all.

The Jedi Council knew about her failures here and acknowledged that she needed reinforcements, but couldn't afford to send any. Soon, she knew, her armies would have to retreat and she would lose all progress, her and her men would have to brave an attempt back off the world, and she knew that the Separatists would never let them retreat safely. The men who gave their lives trying to take this world would have died for nothing.

She'd been frustrated with them, she struggled to resist her anger, but it was hard not to give in after watching her men die day after day and watch as the Council did nothing about it.

In a fleeting moment, she thought of Iira. She and Alsha and their son had settled down in Onderon, which was freed from Separatist control a little less than a month ago, meaning she could finally be able to visit, and see her nephew for the first time.

That was, if she was ever able to leave her post here, yet another reason for her frustrations with the Council.

But she knew complaining to herself wasn't going to do a thing, she got up, got dressed and left her tent. This early in the morning, the base was quiet. There weren't many people awake, but she saw Delk, Dack, and Juno sitting together eating breakfast and talking amongst each other. Watching them for a moment, she noticed Dack and Juno sitting closer than normal, and she raised an eyebrow at the sight, wondering just what her padawan was getting herself into.

She made her way over, and Delk gave her a grin as she sat down.

"How'd you sleep, General?" He asked, grabbing a plate and handing it to her.

"I slept just fine," she lied, "What are you three talking about so early in the morning?"

"Not much, we were just chatting," Juno said, "I just happened to be awake at the same time as these two and I wasn't exactly doing anything else, so..."

As she spoke, Jaelyn noticed a familiar bracelet that had fallen out of her arm brace.

"I see you're wearing the bracelet again," she pointed out.

She raised her eyebrows, and glanced back down at it, "Oh, yeah,"

The sight of it made her smile just slightly. For weeks after the Umbara campaign, she and Juno had been through a rough spot. Juno had explained that she'd begun to lose trust in her, and Jaelyn tried talking it through with her apprentice. She knew they were still working it through, but she was glad they had talked.

The bracelet had been a gift. First, a gift to her, given to her on her 17th Birthday from her former master, Plo Koon. It was a simple piece of jewelry, a brown leather chain that wrapped twice around her wrist and at the clasp was a chunk of a kyber crystal. Plo explained that it was a focus, useful when still learning and training as a Jedi, but it was also a reminder of where you started. Juno's 17th Birthday had been a few days before arriving in Cato Neimoidia, and although she knew she'd had her own celebration with the clones, Jaelyn had given the gift to her. She hadn't been wearing it due to their past resentment, this was the first time Jaelyn saw her wearing it since she first gifted the bracelet.