Marquikise's POV
"Won't you let me out?" A female voice asks.
"Only with his or another Jedi's consent." An artificial voice replies.
"Come on, can't you accompany me?"
"That's not in my protocol."
"Rest easy I can take care of this." Another voice interrupts. "Dalka, I instructed you to stay with him at all times."
"I'm a citizen of the Republic and am free to leave whenever I want." She demands.
"I will not question you on your citizenship but this is a matter of medical issues."
"I'm fine! I can walk, can't I?" She angrily counters.
"I understand, but you must also know that your connection to this new discovery has made many members of the council want to know more. We must be able to ensure your witness statement is not devalued by any medical conditions you may have."
"You have everything that you need. I'm not going to give any additional information." She replies. "Now, may I leave?"
The other voice takes a second before answering.
"You're free to go."
"But sir-" The droid tries to interject.
"He's stirring." The other voice starts.
I raise my head and blink my eyes into focus. I'm still seated in the corner of the medical room. Dalka is gone and I can see my Master in the doorway. He greets me, and enters the room. A droid behind him is still looking down the hallway.
"I see you have constructed your lightsaber." He extends his hand and I pass my lightsaber to him. He examines it before igniting the blade. "Not my style of lightsaber but one that could suit your form four style."
He passes it back.
"I enjoyed watching your training under Master Yoda and other form four users. But I must caution you, it is an aggressive form."
"Yes Master."
"I must inform you of the events that transpired during your rest." He sighs. "We lost many Jedi in a battle that we're referring to as the Battle of Geonosis."
My look of confusion must be his prompt continuation.
"When Master Kenobi, Skywalker and Senator Amidala were going to executed, we staged a failed capture attempt of the culprit, Count Dooku. This was most likely the man you encountered." He stops for a second. "Master Yoda was able to join up with the new grand army of the Republic to rescue the remaining Jedi. The Geonosians has set us up with their droid counterattack force. The resulting battle left both sides with heavy casualties."
"What army did you say Master Yoda brought?" I ask.
"Master Kenobi, found a planet called Kamino. A race there, called the Kaminoans, created a clone army for the Republic." He pauses. "I know this might be a lot to take in, but our next mission is in urgent need of our service."
"Alright." I nod, only barely grasping what he just explained.
"Come on." He turns to the door. "We are expected to be on board of a cruiser now."
My still sleep dazed trance is overcome by the stress of being late. Quickly strapping my belt around my tunic, before rushing out of the room. Dashing after my Master, I fall in step. He leads me to the hanger and toward a pair of light, single person starships. He immediately jumps into the green shaded star fighter, leaving me with the one with a pair of red circles on the otherwise unpainted starship. I jump in and engage the flight sequence. The autopilot skillfully maneuvers the starship out of the hanger and follows my Master's ship to the capital ship in the airspace over the Jedi temple. The hanger on the ship opens and my autopilot carefully maneuvers my ship into the hanger. We land and I exit my ship. I'm immediately greeted by a soldiers full attention and in a white, full armed suit and full face helmet. One stands in front of the row, helmet markings seem to distinguish him from the others behind him.
"Sir, I am the captain assigned to escort you to the bridge." The soldier informs me.
Looking to my Master, I see him gesture for me to go with the captain.
"Lead the way." I reply to the captain. He turns and heads to the door of the hanger.
"I should fill you in with the situation as we go Padawan Jedi." He starts. "We believe the droid army may be targeting an arms manufacturer for the Republic army. A specific part of the trading route passes through some well know pirate routes and several recent shipments have gone missing at this stop. The hired trading company uses these stops to refuel and let the crew rest on their journey to Coruscant. We may have located the source of the pirates, and we have reason to believe the pirates are being funded by the droid army."
By now, we have arrived at the bridge. We appear to still be in hyperspace. The captain strides forward to greet the ship's commander. The commander is dressed in uniform and a cap. They exchange a few words before looking at me.
"It is a great pleasure to have a Jedi aiding this mission." The commander starts. "My captain tells me that he's filled you in."
"That's correct."
"Good, Captain assemble a team to be the ground team." He points to me. "Take this Jedi and three gunships. I'll leave who else to take up to you."
While the captain pours over soldier files, I spend some time studying the bridge. The bridge is divided into communications, navigation, and operations. Most of the soldiers on the bridge are in the gray uniforms rather than the suits. A hand rests on my shoulder.
"Padawan this is your mission. May the force be with you."
"Thank you Master."
"My place is here." He pauses. "Remember your training and trust your allies. The Captain is the leader on this mission, do as he says as if it were me."
"Of course."
A rapid beeping starts. We drop out of hyperspace.
"Come Jedi, we need to leave." The captain tells me.
I immediately fall behind him. Making our way down to the hanger, we meet the other soldiers going with us. He splits us into three groups, separating the leader of each shuttle party as myself, the captain and his second in command. We are to conduct a search of the surface near where the expected base is. The three teams will land separately and each will try to infiltrate the base. After capturing the suspects or sabotaging the base we will signal the other teams and escape. He explains that this should allow the mission to continue even if two shuttles were to go down.
"You know your duties. Find this culprit and shut them down. We suspect the CIS is behind this but stick to the plan. Good luck." He pauses, looking at me. "And may the force be with you."
I board my shuttle before they take off with the other soldiers in my team. Most of them don't say anything or even remove their helmets. Grabbing a seat, I await further orders.
"Begin the decent to the designated coordinates." The captain states over the intercom.
The shuttle begins to rattle as we descend through the atmosphere. The rattling continues before our shuttle shakes and shutters from a loud concussive sound from outside the shuttle.
"Taking fire, how are you bravo team?" The intercom erupts with chatter.
"We've taken a few hits, we're only going to be able to-" static over the intercom cut out the transmission.
Another concussive sound outside shakes the ship again.
"I can get you guys to the ground but I'm pulling out away from the anti-air cannons." Our pilot states.
"That's fine, get us where you can." Another soldier shouts.
A harsh thump means that we've landed, and the shuttle doors begin to slide open. The ground team and I rush out to face the environment. The planet seems to be rolling hills, long grass, and small trees type planet like Dantooine.
"Come on boys, we have a job to do." One of the soldiers shouts before they run off toward the base.
I sprint to their location and continue to run with them. We appear to be climbing a large hill.
"Hey." A hand grabs my shoulder and pulls me down to the ground. "It's right over there."
The soldier who pulled me down is pointing toward the now visible base in the distance. The rather small structure is a simple rectangular almost drop and leave type base. Industrial, unpainted walls make it stand out from the long grass of the landscape. Two of the four sides are visible from our hill. One side appears to have a single large, closed hanger door for shipments while the other has a single row of windows a meter off the ground. The structure is in a valley surrounded by tall hills, making it's small size disappear under the large rolling hills.
"Sir what's the plan?" A soldier asks the marked soldier.
"I don't know, it's up the the Jedi." All helmets turn to me.
Sudden realization that they are depending on me sets in.
"Give me a second." I take a moment to survey the terrain. The white armor will stick out agains the tall grass so any frontal assault might not work. My dark robes might be a better camouflage but only slightly better than the soldier's armor.
"Sir, time is of the upmost importance." I nod.
"Did the other teams get here yet?" I ask.
"They should be on those two hills." A soldier points to hills opposite of ours. A plume of smoke is billowing from behind one of them.
I realize that if any persons were in the base, they would most likely focusing on that hill. The one large and empty pad toward the side of the building where the smoking wreck of our other transport is must be where their intercepting ship or ships have been staying. One small overlooking post barely visible over the building, on the far side must be their security. The relatively short distance that we would need to cover before arriving at the base would be enough before they could react.
"We could rush this side of the building before that lookout spots us." I suggest.
"Let's do that, I can't wait to stick it to them for the Captain's ship." He cracks his knuckles.
"Let's go."
As one body, we rise and sprint to the building. Other than the few slower soldiers, we all make it to the building before any blaster fire starts. The once closed door is now open and several long rows of B-1 battle droids open fire on our unit. They're staged behind a barricade and have much more cover then my unit. My blade erupts and I take a defensive stance to block incoming fire. A torrent of blaster fire fills the air. Pure instinct through the force and training is the only reason I am able to stop blaster fire from hitting me. Sweat begins to build and run down my body blurring my vision and making it more difficult to cling to my lightsaber. In the heat of battle, I am only able to concentrate on surviving the onslaught. A loud explosion stops the blaster fire for a brief moment. It seems one of the other squads had fired an explosive into the droid ranks, sending rows of droids and charred metal flying. The break allows me to look inside only to spot a hover vehicle with several large cannons trained on me.
Only my mind could have stopped it. My tired limbs barely move to avoid a high power shot. Another explosion and the the hover vehicle is gone. Another clone has saved my skin from being fried by the surprise attack. I take a sigh of relief before looking to my comrades.
Not a single clone from my squad survived. While, the battle is won, my feelings do not perceive it that way. I struggle to look at each clone as we cary their lifeless bodies to be buried. Only a few clones say anything to me. What surprises me is the sorrowful looks but no questions.
"Sorry Jedi. Nothing that you could have done." The Captain states. He had survived the crash landing and lead the squad with the heavy munitions trooper. He pats my shoulder. "They did their job and you supported them."
I can't help but ask.
"Why did they follow me into that ambush?" It doesn't make sense but somehow I felt like everyone should have known including myself.
"Good soldiers follow orders." The Captain simply states. "Besides one in my squad, we didn't loose anyone else today."
"Yeah, I suppose that's true." The shock still wearing off but the pain of loosing everyone still there.
"Don't dwell on those you have lost, instead focus on what you can change." He comments before leaving. My eyes follow him as he leaves, his words sinking deep.
A day later and a harsh scolding from my Master, I'm back at the Jedi Temple. My given task is to research battle strategy from the archives. The menial task of reading battles and forming strategies from them is something that has already been done but is something my Master has none the less assigned.
"Suffering as terrible of a loss, studying strategy is your next task. You will come back with a thousand strategies when you rejoin me. Having an apprentice who cannot lead is not fit for duty." My Master's words ring through my mind.
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