The Force Wills - Chapter 80 (Patreon)

“How many?”

“Final count, eighty-three, commander,” Rex said solemnly, yet his broiling anger was simmering under the surface. “Most are wookiees, already rendered to pelts, some even stuffed and turned into lifelike displays. The rest are the mounted skulls of twi’leks, humans, cereans and a few togruta.”

I took in the report as I stared out through the windows of the floating fortress’ command deck, which was at the apex of the pyramidal structure.

Every single trandoshan on board had fought to the death and only a last minute assault by Anakin had prevented the final one from overloading the fusion reactor. A final tally of fifty-seven hunters had been accounted for.

Chewbacca let out a low growl from his position a few feet away. He had retrieved his iconic silver utility toolbelt, the Tenloss disruptor rifle hung from his back, clipped to it.

“Rex, I want every ARC trooper and Blade to connect and upload their armor’s visual data to me. I’ll let M8 compile it all. We need to get it transmitted as soon as possible.”

“I’ll get it done immediately, commander.”

“Our own dead?”

“Eleven, eight ARC troopers, three Blades.”

“How much is left to bury?”

Rex’s mouth pursed into a grim line, “Scorched scraps of armor and clothing.”

Even beskar’gam didn’t truly help you when the atomic structure of the armor itself was disrupted. The only sure counter was a specific frequency of energy shield.

“Thank you, captain. Dismissed.”

The clone captain did a quick salute and hurried off the deck, already speaking into his comlink.

My eyes and thoughts turned to the island below us and just how we were going to rescue them in as short a time as possible.

“Chewbacca, how quickly can your king mobilize warriors, assuming it was done four to five hours ago?”

“There is always a force on standby, due to the recent problems with the Separatists. My friend General Tarfful is the leader that the king commissioned to make an organized military for my people.”

“Good to hear that.”

“You are troubled, Master Jedi?”

“Yes, this fortress, all the dead, the victims still on that island and us, are witnesses and evidence. So tell me,” I pointed up to the planet of Trandosha. “What would the Trandosha Dominion do when it comes to acknowledging this? Would they want the galaxy to find out that they’re letting their old jagannath traditions resurface? That they’re taking advantage of the galactic war to let these unofficial hunter groups run wild.”

“We know our old enemy well,” Chewbacca growled. “They will not acknowledge it. They’d sooner-”

In the light of the control deck, I could see the wookiee’s blue eyes flare with realization.

“M8, have any transmissions made it off Wasskah during our assault?”

“No records in the fortress’ computers indicate that their communication system was used. R2 did a good job of jamming any potential transmissions,” said my armor’s intelligence aloud, for the benefit of Chewbacca.

Then why was I foreseeing that we’d come under attack in four hours. What could’ve caused the news to leak out?

I tapped my comlink, “R2. Analyze the comm spectrum around the time of our attack. I know you were jamming thoroughly, but check again.”

“Analyzing now, Jedi Tano.”

I switched channels, “Anakin?”

“Yes, Snips? I’m still busy gathering all the dead with the troopers down here.”

“We just got a time limit to our rescue operation. We need everyone off the island in less than four hours.”

“Snips, the only way to do that is to hunt them down and stun them.”

As far as the hunters knew or at least their computers, there were still eleven surviving prisoners including the three padawans. They were actually wrong as I sensed at least thirteen distinct sentients on the island. Finding each one when they were all in a near permanent flight mindset, added to the fact that the island was a dense mass of life - well, it was problematic. The only thing we had to quickly reach the island was the hover pods they used to hunt their prey and the two cargo ships.

“There’s no choice then. I’m going to have to go out there and throw Sleep on everyone.”

“Are you going to be able to use that on the padawans?”

“That is a good question, Skyguy. It’s either this or face the prospect of fighting whatever the trandoshans are sending to destroy all the evidence.”

“I won’t even ask how sure you are about this.”

My comlink chirped. “R2? What do you have?”

“I’m sorry, Jedi Tano. It seems these hunters had a low frequency pulse signal constantly being sent from each of them and when I threw up the jamming, it cut everything off. This signal was going to Trandosha. I analyzed it and can only conclude that these were implants. Implants that send not only location data, but also health status.”

“How did we not detect that?”

“I’ve thoroughly scanned Garnac and his implant. It seems they have conscious control of it. He turned it off for the duration of the trip to Kashyyyk and only now turned it back on during our assault. When the fight was over I turned off the jamming.”

“So whoever was on the other end would definitely see that something was majorly wrong when only Garnac’s implant was transmitting, whilst all the others were just gone.” I sighed deeply, no use crying over spilt milk at this point. Those implants were just another thing we had to watch out for in the future when dealing with trandoshans. “Skyguy-”

“I’ll get on the comm to both Umnunoo and the Clarity, tell them to get here as soon as possible.”

“I don’t like this, Skyguy,” I gave Chewbacca and the Tenloss rifle a look. “But we may have no choice, we need every disruptor we can find.”

He saw immediately what I was getting at. “I’ll order the men to raid the bodies and armory.”

I tapped my comlink to shut it down. “Chewbacca, would you please pilot the smaller cargo ship for me while I do this?”

“Yes, but I don’t understand, are you just going to put them to sleep? From a distance?”

I nodded, “It’s a technique in the Force I possess, yes, but it’s complicated.”

“If you say so, Master Jedi.”

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Brown eyes snapped open in a brief panic.

His heart raced as he quickly surveyed his surroundings, he strained every sense and called on the Force to enhance them.

His eyes only found his hideout; a camouflaged lean-to enclosure made of natural materials, scavenged from the forest floor of the island. Through the thin gaps in the walls only the reflected light from Trandosha flitted through. His ears reported nothing strange but he was sure something loud had actually woken him or maybe it had just been a dream. His nose had nothing new to say either so he dulled all his senses down, as his own stink was quite pungent at this point.

They had only minimal opportunity to bathe at the nearest river and only dared approach it when they were sure that no hunt would happen. Even then, the time was mainly spent gathering water to survive the hot days. His Jedi tunic and pants had streaks and stains. At this point, it had become a darker shade of brown with numerous cuts and tears from desperately evading hunts through the rough unforgiving foliage of the island. The only thing still in good shape was his boots, though the shine was long gone.

He felt a slight, characteristic pulse in the Force, then another.

Both Kalifa and O-Mer were also awake and signaling.

Jinx carefully emerged, slowly, straining every sense. Only when he was fully satisfied did he slowly stand up and close the camouflage brambles that hid his ‘front door’.

It took a few minutes to carefully stalk towards the meeting point they used on the third day of the week. This was necessary to avoid giving the trandoshans an easy point to lay in wait for an ambush.

On this occasion, it was a rather crooked tree, shaped like an elderly crone.

Jinx released a triple pulse through the Force.

A few moments later he sensed a triple pulse and O-Mer slunk into view from behind another tree.

The young cerean only nodded in greeting, before they clasped hands.

“O-Mer, what was that?” He thought.

With this level of communication, very little explicit explanation was needed as concepts and memories tagged along for the ride.

“Many small, powerful explosions happening at once.”

“Any idea where?”

He shook his head, “Only that it happened above us at a low altitude.”

Another triple pulse heralded the arrival of the last Jedi on the island.

Kalifa looked quite grumpy and they could sense a simmering annoyance and anger bubbling in the young human. She grabbed Jinx’s free hand and he winced as her sharp thoughts burst into their minds.

“What’s going on? I was just about to sleep.”

O-Mer sent his own memory of the explosion to them both in answer.

Jinx winced at the sharp crackle that seemed to resonate in his ears, even though he hadn’t heard them. That was always the problem when O-Mer shared a memory, cerean senses were quite acute.

“Interesting,” thought Kalifa. “New tactic to spook us? Keep us from sleeping so we’d be more prone to make mistakes?”

“Possibly,” O-Mer thought. “We’d have to wait twenty minutes or so, see if it repeats to be certain.”

Very logical and typical of the cerean. They all felt each other’s agreement and let go. Then found a spot to get comfortable around the tree, but made sure to face outward with their backs to each other.

Jinx felt his stomach pinch in disapproval at how little he had eaten during the day. He quickly settled into meditation to soothe the aching annoyance.

He had barely begun to settle into the process when all of them were buffeted in the Force.

Calling it ‘a disturbance’ didn’t begin to describe it.

He couldn’t help but let out a gasp at the feeling. Kalifa and O-Mer gave him an annoyed look as they rejoined hands.

“Sorry,” he thought immediately. One of the primary ways they’d been hunted was via sound. The trandoshans used what amounted to an extremely sensitive sonic sensor, which were keyed to detect any form of vocal sound. O-Mer had theorized that the bastards had a protocol droid linked to the sensors, so it didn’t matter what language you used. Speak a word and the hunters would get an instant bearing on your position. “That felt huge.”

Kalifa rolled her eyes, “Really Jinx, is that all you got from it? You need to work on your sensing and interpretation of the Force. Someone just used the Force in a massive way.”

“Above us again,” thought O-Mer. “Directed, focused, with intent. It could only be a Jedi Knight or even a Master.”

“Are you telling me we’re finally being rescued?” Jinx asked. He felt the tiny bit of hope in his heart, that he had carefully kept preserved, flare anew.

“Possibly.”

“We didn’t manage to send out a distress signal when we were captured,” Kalifa countered. “The only possible reason for a Jedi to be on this moon is if the war has reached us here. If that’s the case, we’ll be up to our eyes in either droids or clones. It also makes no sense, there’s nothing tactical or strategic about this island.”

“The Separatists can’t have made it to Kashyyyk already,” Jinx shook his head.

“It’s been months since we had any notion of how the war is going. The Seppies could be on Coruscant’s doorstep for all we know.”

O-Mer and Jinx had long grown used to Kalifa’s brand of pessimism.

“In any case, we know there’s a Jedi nearby, how are we going to get their attention?” Jinx asked urgently.

“We’re far from knights, Jinx. We can barely send our little pulses to the edge of the island and it’s not like they’re looking for us.”

“A fire?”

She glared at the cerean’s suggestion, “Sure, just lead the trandoshans straight to us.”

“If a knight is up there, then it’s logical to assume they’re fighting the trandoshans. It’s also safe to say that there could be clone troopers as well.”

“Too risky. We don’t know that. The knight could be on a solo mission and then when they move on or are killed, we’re left with a fire that could draw the trandoshans right to us. Not to mention the reaction of everyone else on the island, we’ve not exactly made friends amongst them.”

Jinx felt nerves shoot up from his stomach and all along his spine as Kalifa touched on a very sore subject amongst the three of them.

In an ideal galaxy, they’d have been helping defend or care for the other prisoners. They would’ve gathered and organized them to mount some form of resistance. They’d have been strong enough in the Force to not even need lightsabers or weapons to do this. They would’ve stopped every hunter that came to the island, disarmed them, took over their hover pods and left for some form of proper civilization on this moon. A single public holocall later and the Jedi Order would’ve come.

That’s what should’ve happened.

Instead, none of them were strong or skilled enough in the Force to do any of that.

Only Kalifa and O-Mer had enough skill to do the Force Push, but even then it wasn’t strong enough. It would’ve barely made a trandoshan take a step backward, and leave them both exhausted afterward. Telekinetics had always been a problem for Jinx. He could, on a good day, float a few pebbles to do some fancy tricks. The trandoshans would laugh at him through their scopes, before they’d put him out of his misery with a sniper bolt.

The best they could do was simply use the Force to survive, augmenting their own bodies and senses to hide and run. Leaving the other prisoners to their fates, even when they saw a hunt taking place.

Jinx couldn’t help but recall the first prisoner he’d seen hunted for sport.

A female snivvian - they ran her down using a hover pod for nearly two hours, until she was lying exhausted and unable to move, giving them a perfect shot. They landed then and simply used a knife to cut off the body’s head, boasting about how the two large tusks would make for a fine trophy.

A sentient being, with dreams, hopes, loves and passions. Snivvians were known for their artistic inclinations, so Jinx liked to imagine that she’d been a musician - how much potential had been lost? Reduced to simply being a stuffed skull on the wall of a trandoshan hunter.

Kalifa glared at him. “Jinx, some mental discipline please. We don’t want to be subjected to your regrets and fantasies.”

“Do speak for yourself, Kalifa,” O-Mer thought pointedly.

She waved him off. “Let’s stick to the present, please. No fire. We’ll do nothing. Either the knight will win and we’ll have no more trandoshans hunting us or they’ll lose and we’re back to status quo. If they win, we’ll know in a few days, then we can make plans from there to get off the island.”

“What are you going to do, build a boat?” Jinx asked sarcastically. “Do you have a map towards the nearest shore and city, even if you manage that?”

“Did you not pay attention in survival class in the academy?” she retorted.

“I’m sorry, I must’ve missed the lesson on aquatic boat building from local materials,” he said snidely.

“Well, I do know and if you keep up with this attitude, perhaps I’ll only build it for two.”

O-Mer took a deep cleansing breath and they could sense he was holding back his own anger, “This speculation is not productive, as is your attitude. While caution is warranted, we must be proactive. I believe and sense a chance for rescue is upon us. We’d be fools not to take advantage of it. I suggest we try to find out more. We must go to higher ground and even climb some of the trees, see if we can’t…” He looked up and closed his eyes. “Wait, I sense another Jedi, even stronger. Definitely a master.”

Jinx saw it through O-Mer’s senses, the latter having the best skill among the more esoteric Jedi arts.

“All right,” Kalifa agreed reluctantly. “But we’ll split up, if any trandoshans come I don’t want them to catch us all together.”

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Jinx alternately slunk through the trees and sprinted only when he was sure there was no one watching.

The highest part of the island was in the north-east and was dominated by a number of giant petrified trees. It was a place generally avoided because you would be easily spotted there by the trandoshans from their hover pods. If you were careful though, the smaller trees that surrounded the giants could be climbed for a view of the entire island.

He had only done it once, just to see the extent of it with his own eyes, but never again. It only served to dampen his heart and hit home the situation. The island was not a place of natural beauty. The alien trees had shapes that were just wrong to his eyes. Very wide at the base, before tapering to a narrow point that was always crooked and barely had anything recognizable as leaves. Too many had petrified and while there was insect and animal life here, the ecosystem was out of balance and ravaged - no doubt because of the trandoshans overhunting the place and importing more alien life.

At this point, without chrono’s on their wrists, their concept of time passing had been distorted enough that they couldn’t tell precisely how long it took to do anything. If they bothered, they could count their own heartbeats and remember, but on this occasion Jinx could only focus on the tiny flame of hope in his heart.

His journey could’ve been twenty minutes or an hour or even more.

He couldn’t even estimate how long it would take him to reach the north-east. Those giant petrified trees just loomed up into the sky and didn’t seem to become larger at all as he closed the distance.

That was when his ears heard the sound of repulsors.

It was a trandoshan cargo ship.

His heart sank even as it sped up.

He began sprinting for the nearest tree that looked like a good hiding spot.

The wind pushed by the thrusters of the low flying ship buffeted him, and it suddenly burst into view just as he pulled himself into the hollow of the dead tree.

Keep moving, he thought desperately. You didn’t see me!

Reality and the Force didn’t listen. The ship flared to a stop merely twenty meters from his position, hovering there and the landing lights suddenly came on, bathing the entire area.

Jinx couldn’t dare move now and desperately curled into a ball in his hiding place, trying his best to control his breathing and cut down on any sound his body made.

Then from the left a figure burst into view, from the horns and the ears, it looked like a devaronian - another prisoner for the hunt, only wearing tatters for clothes.

He seemed to be very disoriented and fighting the thin air around him.

“No!” he screamed. “I won’t go… No sleep! Go away devil!”

The devaronian shook his fists in defiance at the ship above him, then even started using his fingers to show what had to be non-verbal insults.

The characteristic electric blue rings of stun shots came down on him from above.

His form was awash with blue energy for a moment before it faded. His eyes rolled into the back of his head and he simply fell to the forest floor with a thump.

Jinx’s astonishment reached new heights though when what was clearly three ARC troopers jumped out of the open loading ramp of the ship.

The hiss of jetpacks resounded as the troopers landed around the devaronian.

One immediately seemed to check the condition of the alien, before pulling out cuffs and securing his arms.

Two troopers gathered the prisoner into their arms, their jetpacks flared again, carrying them into the air to expertly land back on the ship’s ramp.

The third trooper paused though.

Then the Force seemed to wash over Jinx.

It felt like someone had distilled peace, solemnity, rest, the sweet oblivion of sleep and then started dumping it like rain onto his mind.

“No!” he thought. Sleeping now was bad, dangerous. The trandoshans would catch him then.

Yet the sleep kept trying to entangle him as if he was caught in the webs of a ginntho spider.

Uncaring, delirious he fought back, thrashing his arms at the invisible webs.

Then his right arm was physically caught by the strong hand of someone else and the webs vanished.

Jinx looked up into the visored helmet of an ARC trooper.

His ears picked up that the trooper was speaking to him, but it seemed to be drowned out as the cargo ship now flew directly overhead.

The trooper with a blue pattern adorning his armor, came closer and finally…

“Padawan Jinx! We’re here to rescue you! Do you understand?!”

In that moment, it felt like every repressed emotion of the last few months just surged forward anew. It crashed down on his heart and paradoxically, his hope exploded and just sheer relief suffused his being.

Then another primary emotion just surged forward, unable to be denied and the world became blurry as he burst into tears. His hands reached out and clamped onto the arm of the trooper as if it was a lifeline.

He barely registered as another trooper showed up and they gently pried him out of the hiding place.

His body racked with sobs, even as the troopers lifted him in their arms.

He felt them carrying him, their footsteps heavy and loud, their equipment and armor rustling.

Then he was airborne with the hiss of a jetpack, the air rushing into his face even as he wanted to cower and hide in shame at letting his emotions break through his control like this. What would the knight that was here think? He could now clearly feel them.

He fought for control as his brief flight ended and he blearily took in the gloomy interior of the cargo ship.

The troopers carried him deeper into the ship and were then putting him down on a blanket in a large space… maybe a cargo hold.

They left as quickly as they had come, leaving Jinx to his own misery.

The sobs returned anew, his body seemingly rebelling from his own control. He twitched, his arms and legs straining against nothing as he fought and fought. His world was reduced to only the blurry view of his own inner eyelids and another place.

A place of darkness, yet light coming from the infinite floor and the distant sky. A place where he stood as his own bedraggled self and not a few feet from him stood another Jinx - this one wearing pristine clothes, perfect lekku with no blemishes, cuts or wounds.

Perfect Jinx sneered at him, “Look at you. Pathetic! Reduced to a mewling babe.”

Jinx could only look in astonishment at this manifestation and his surroundings. Was this… could this be his ‘center’? The place where all Jedi worth their salt went during meditation?

Perfect Jinx, rolled his eyes, “Took you long enough. Should’ve been here when you were a youngling, but you got distracted with friends, clanmates and neglected your training. You coasted by doing just enough not to be reprimanded. Now look at where that got you. Captured by trandoshans, who you should’ve been able to defeat easily, in your sleep even! Months of starvation, living day by day, running for your life and at last…” Perfect Jinx took a deep breath, as if he was revitalized. “You gave in to your feelings. Your true self. None of that Jedi repression poodoo.”

Jinx gasped as he realized just what he was looking at.

Perfect Jinx just smiled sinisterly, his eyes swirling with yellow. “Oh yes, you’re realizing it now. See what a difference this place makes.”

“No!” he closed his metaphorical eyes.

“Denying me is not going to help, fool. You’ve shut me out for too long, pushing me down and down, yet feeding me all that juicy emotion. Thank you, by the way.”

“Fight him, Jinx.”

He felt a hand on his shoulder.

Jinx twitched his head in fright and there was a mildly smiling O-Mer.

“How did you get here?”

The cerean chuckled, “The same way you did, I imagine. A trooper with a jetpack. I found you babbling in the cargo hold. I sensed your turmoil. Right now, your head is on my lap and we’re sharing this meditation.”

“That was rather quick.”

“Time is very malleable in meditation. There are quite a few former island prisoners around us now.”

“Go away!” Dark Jinx roared.

“Why should I? Jinx is my friend,” O-Mer retorted immediately.

“You’re just as pathetic as he is. Just as out of touch with reality. Denying yourself.”

“I know my duality very well thank you. I don’t need you to point that out.”

Dark Jinx just sneered in response, his hand coming from behind his back to produce a very familiar lightsaber, the blade that erupted was the light blue that Jinx so achingly well remembered.

“How fitting that you will be brought low by this weapon. The blade that you lost so easily, that the trandoshans later destroyed in an incinerator. Its physical form may be gone, but the kyber left its mark on you forever. Here it can always be recalled.”

“Fight him, Jinx,” O-Mer repeated.

“With what?” he asked desperately as the Dark Mirror advanced, idly twirling the blade.

“He just told you,” the cerean smiled, taking a step back. “I’ve done all I can.”

O-Mer vanished.

“Wait, come back!”

The blade hummed with a threatening cadence as it was twirled by the Mirror Jinx, “Never was too bright were you, Jinx. Always hiding behind O-Mer’s brain in your studies. Don’t you worry though, give in to me and all that will be behind us.

He thought to run, but it would be pointless here. Distance was an illusion here.

Mirror Jinx smiled crazily and raised the blade into a Soresu high guard, coming ever closer.

His heart was beating in his ears at this point, he stopped the urge to flee and thought. He stopped just feeling fear at the thought of this seemingly unstoppable Dark Side version of himself.

Think you idiot, use that brain you have, how do I fight?

Against every instinct, he closed his eyes as the blade moved ever closer.

“Poor, poor Jinx,” his mirror mocked. “This is how he meets his end.”

The blade twirled a final time and arced directly for his head.

Only to be blocked and stopped cold by another blade.

Jinx opened his eyes and beheld in his right hand the familiar hilt of chromesteel and whiptree bark, taken directly from the forests of Ryloth.

He had blocked the blade of his Mirror with millimeters to spare.

“Ha ha, goooood,” Dark Jinx smirked with satisfaction. “So there is a functioning brain in between those ears.” He stepped back and started twirling the blade again, making a lazy walking turn around Jinx - who fell into his fledgling Soresu stance. “Let’s dance.”

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Jinx gasped as he opened his actual physical eyes, staring up into the triumphant gaze of his friend.

“Well done, Jinx,” O-Mer bowed his head slightly.

He rolled off to the side and awkwardly sat up on the floor. Around them were a whole bunch of bedraggled people of various species who were clutching cups of hot caf or water. They were all just staring into space with vacant expressions, lost in their own worlds and thoughts.

“I didn’t beat him.”

“You can never truly beat your Mirror,” O-Mer said solemnly. “We will always struggle against it.”

Jinx frowned and looked at his friend curiously, “When did you face it? It’s one of the Jedi Trials, isn’t it?”

“Indeed, we’re both one step closer on the road to knighthood. As for my own Mirror, it was on a lonely night on our second week on the island.”

“You didn’t say anything.”

“That is not something shared idly. We were too busy with survival. I did not want to burden you or Kalifa with it.”

“Thank you for your support in there,” Jinx tapped the side of his own head.

“You’re welcome, my friend.”

“So what’s been happening here? Why are there clone troopers in charge of a trandoshan ship?”

“I spoke only briefly with the… Jedi in charge,” O-Mer said evenly. “They’re ARC troopers of the 501st Legion, only a special operations detachment. The trandoshans tried to abduct her as well on Mossak, but they failed. Her interrogation of them revealed our presence on Wasskah, so she and her master immediately notified the Council and here they are. They used the captured trandoshan ship to approach the island covertly, then launched their attack. It turns out that… our hunters were actually above us the entire time - they were living on a floating fortress platform that looks down on the island.”

Jinx gaped at that revelation, “All this time they were…” He closed his eyes and fought to control the anger the idea provoked. “That explains many things.”

“Yes, the speed of their hunts, how quickly they reacted. That I didn’t deduce it, is most vexing.”

“O-Mer, you might have that big binary brain, but you can’t think of everything.”

The cargo bay door opened and Jinx's first irrational thought was ‘since when are there female clone troopers?’ Then he took in other details; the odd armor pattern, two lightsabers on her hips and the oddly large helmet completely covering her head.

“O-Mer, Jinx,” she beckoned them urgently.

Jinx had to hurry to follow his friend, as he had immediately vaulted to his feet to follow the fully armored Jedi.

“Padawan Tano, what is it?” O-Mer asked worriedly.

Jinx felt his brain acting like a malfunctioning hyperdrive for a moment.

This is Ahsoka Tano?! The Jedi Padawan who commanded entire clone armies and fleets. Who had even commanded a dreadnaught at Bandomeer. The wielder of the Darksaber. The Mandalorian Jedi. The padawan of Anakin Skywalker, the Chosen One.

“We tried to pick up Kalifa, she resisted my Force Sleep. The clone troopers tried to call out to her and convince her to return, but she just ran instead. She managed to dodge stun shots and now we’re just flying above her position as she’s running. Trandoshan reinforcements are coming and will arrive soon, if this takes too long we will be caught in an unnecessary battle.”

“So that was you? The sleep-”

“Yes, yes, I apologize for that,” she interrupted as they neared the extended embarkation ramp and the low roar of engines and wind blasted them. Beyond, the trees below moved relatively slowly, with the ominous green form of Trandosha looming in the night sky. “Time is not on our side! We can’t afford to be nice about it! I want you here to take care of her when I return!”

Tano produced a DC-17 pistol, priming it and switching the safety off, before taking two running steps and jumping off of the ship.

Jinx gaped stupidly, when instead of controlling her fall with the Force; boot jets erupted from her feet and she literally flew out of sight. He glanced at O-Mer, only to see the cerean showing no surprise whatsoever at the armor’s capability.

He only knew one thing at that moment - he wanted one as well.

They waited and squinted into the night, looking for the return of Padawan Tano.

What felt like a few minutes later, they were both startled at her sudden reappearance. This time she was carrying what had to be an unconscious Kalifa across her shoulders. Tano’s flight seemed much more unsteady this time. Her boot jets were only properly calibrated for her own body weight.

Both padawans felt the Force twist and surge in a way that seemed to latch onto the bulk of the ship itself - then Tano surged forward abruptly and her feet pointed forward to release a burst of braking thrust.

For a moment Jinx was afraid she’d be blasting them with that thrust, but her jets shut down just before that would happen.

She landed in a crouch just in front of them and shrugged off Kalifa from her shoulders, before levitating the insensate padawan forward.

“Help me!” O-Mer snapped and they both rushed forward to grab their fellow padawan.

Jinx found himself holding Kalifa under her arms, whilst O-Mer handled her legs.

Tano slammed a button on the side of the inner bulkhead, which immediately began retracting the ramp and closing up the ship. She rushed past them without a further word..

“Come Jinx, let’s get her settled in the cargo bay.”

They heard the ship’s engines whine into full trust and the buffeting threatened to topple their balance as they carried Kalifa.

They put her down on the blanket Jinx had been given and swaddled her in it, providing as much comfort as possible.

“Where can I get some of that?” Jinx pointed to the caf the prisoners were drinking.

O-Mer led him to the rear of the bay, where caf, water flasks and cups had been laid out on a cargo pallet. There was also a variety of preserved meat snacks. Jinx resisted the urge to just grab handfuls and begin eating, common sense prevailed. It’d be a while before he could stomach a full meal again.

He’d barely had a few of the snacks and two sips of his water when the bay doors opened again.

“Jinx! Over here, move!” Tano commanded.

Something in her voice seemed to just resonate in his brain, he barely had the thought to grab another snack and shove it into his mouth before he was running for the exit.

“O-Mer…”

“I shall keep a close eye on Kalifa, padawan.”

Jinx was barely out of the cargo hold when Ahsoka shoved a large rifle into his chest. His eyes widened at the sleek thing, his hands automatically grabbing the stock and barrel.

“What’s this?”

“I read your file, you were a pretty good shot in the blaster familiarization class at the academy. Right now, we need every weapon possible. Follow me.”

He blubbered in astonishment for a moment before focusing and gathering his wits. He rushed to follow the padawan, whilst settling the rifle properly in his hands and fiddling with the controls. It wasn’t a weapon he was immediately familiar with off-hand. He didn’t recognize the manufacturer's trademark and it felt a bit heavier than a standard blaster rifle of its size should be.

He followed her to the rear of the ship, where three ARC troopers were waiting - they also had the same weapon and handed Tano another.

“Listen carefully, we got everyone off the island, but we’re not going to get out of Trandosha’s mass shadow before we’re intercepted. Chewbacca has already detected six heavy fighters and two trandoshan cargo ships, no doubt packed with the rest of these chakaar. Now if it came down to a ground battle I’d peg us as winning any day, but those fighters change the game.”

“And that’s where we come in?” asked the most senior ARC trooper.

“That’s right Rex. We’re the most maneuverable air asset we have and our stealth system will keep us off their scanners, at least until visual range is reached. Our disruptors, especially with massed fire, should make easy work of the fighters. Their shields can’t stop this. The problem is our accuracy and we can only shoot out of the rear of the ship.”

Jinx’s eyes widened in alarm as he stared at the weapon in his hands. No wonder he didn’t recognize its design. He was literally carrying a black market weapon that was illegal in every civilized star system in the galaxy.

“How many hits can this ship’s shields take?” Rex asked grimly.

“Chewbacca has worked some wookiee engineering magic with M8 handling the programming side, we can take maybe three or four if we’re lucky.”

“Commander, shouldn’t we get the prisoners off the ship first?”

“Ideally yes, but by the time we offload them, they’d be buzzing around the fortress anyway. Chewbacca is keeping us within the fortress’ gun range, orbiting as close as possible. We’ll land and hide behind the fortress’ shields before our own shields die, but we have to take out some of these fighters. Otherwise they can bash us down anyway.”

“Understood, commander.”

Ahsoka tapped her comlink, “We’re ready here, Chewie…” She visibly sighed. “Sorry, I mean, Chewbacca.” The rapid growls and grunts of a wookiee emanated from her wrist. “Well, Chewie, that’s good to hear.”

A trooper slapped the door controls and they immediately went full prone on the deck, charging their rifles.

“Let’s go, Jinx,” Ahsoka patted the floor next to her as she knelt and the ramp opened to reveal the rapidly blasting wind and shifting dark green clouds beneath the ship.

He mastered himself, fighting down his own fear.

He was going to be fighting the trandoshans.

In his nightmares he relived the events of their capture, how easy it had been for the lizards to surprise them and take down even a Jedi Knight. How quickly they had defeated three padawans with those stun nets.

No, this was different. Now, he had a weapon in hand. He was next to ARC troopers and Ahsoka Tano herself.

He knelt to the deck and settled himself on his stomach, finding determination in his heart from somewhere.

He settled the buttstock of the rifle into his shoulder, stabilizing the barrel shroud on top of his left hand, left elbow digging uncomfortably into the deck and tapped the small control panel on its left side, charging the weapon but keeping the safety on. It looked like the safety switch at least. The weapon only had a rudimentary holosight with some basic aiming predictors.

Ahsoka shifted her weapon’s stock against her shoulder and aimed, then her hand reached out and touched his shoulder briefly.

‘Jinx,’ her voice resounded in his head and immediately he felt the Force Bond that she had established in mere moments.

It was so clear and strong that he knew that if they both wished, it could be permanent.

Unbelievable. It was the kind of feat that belonged in legend and story of ancient Jedi, not in the here and now.

‘Ahsoka?’

‘Good, that worked. You don’t have a radio, so I’m going to coordinate with you this way. Firstly ignore the aiming directors of the holosight, they’re poodoo. Use the Force, see where the enemy will be and fire there. This specific disruptor doesn’t fire a bolt, but rather a constant beam of energy. It’ll go until it hits solid matter. So watch your fire when we’re doing circuits around the fortress. Your beam could go on and hit friendlies. It’ll also hurt electronics on the fortress, which we really do not want. Hit the wrong bit and the entire thing might as well just fall out of the sky. Our only job at the moment is to disable or kill the fighters. Any questions?”

‘Yes, is this the safety?’ He pointed to the lit red button.

‘Indeed it is.’

‘Then I’m ready.’

He felt her approval and her smile. ‘We’re now at the most difficult part of any combat.’

Jinx looked beyond his rifle sights and stretched out his senses with the Force. ‘What part?’

‘The wait before battle is joined. Your mind will want to play tricks on you, distract you, make you think about all sorts of horrible scenarios of how the battle is going to unfold poorly. It pushes your own morale down, makes you want to run. A base evolutionary response that’s short sighted and instinctual. Think only of your job, focus on it. You could even fall into a partial meditation if you have the skill for it.’

The thought of going back to the world of infinite black and white didn’t appeal to him at the moment. ‘Ah, no.’

‘Current ETA for the enemy is eight minutes according to sensors.’

He stared out of the ship and finally saw what had to be the floating fortress, only partially visible to his left. It was hard to fathom that the trandoshans had been up here all this time. Then as the ship continued its lazy orbit, he spotted the obvious battle damage that the fortress had already sustained from the Republic assault.

Now they were going to have to use the same fortress just to survive.

He took Ahsoka’s advice and just put his focus on his rifle and thought back to his training with them.

Aim, breathe in, breathe out, squeeze the trigger.

‘Get ready, Jinx. Brace your right leg against the bulkhead, we’re going to experience a bumpy ride.’

‘What already?’ He quickly did as she instructed.

Where had all that time gone?

Suddenly the sight and sound of a dozen laser cannons firing from the fortress assaulted his senses. The view and his sight picture beyond his rifle began shifting rapidly as the ship maneuvered evasively.

“Schutta!” he yelped as some inertial forces began bleeding through the dampers, upsetting his aim. His heart began racing in fear and he struggled against it with all his will.

Do your job, Jinx! He thought with every bit of will he had, shutting out all distraction that threatened to rob him. For some reason, his brain decided to deliver a memory of his time as a youngling in lightsaber deflection class, wearing the helmet that robbed him of sight.

This was no different in essence.

He steadied his right leg against the bulkhead and submerged in the Force, ignoring the chaos of his eyes, ignoring the chaos of hearing - he put aside the rush of air, the snap of laser cannon, the whine of straining engines.

He steadied his rifle and waited for the moment.

In the Force, he saw the moment a Belbullab heavy starfighter would appear. He ignored his rational mind that wondered just how these trandoshans had gotten their hands on a Separatist navy fighter.

Then the cargo ship he was on slewed its tail and the heavy fighter jumped into view.

Jinx saw the moment, adjusted aim slightly and squeezed the trigger-

‘FIRE!’

Five light orange disruption beams appeared instantly and connected with the port engine nacelle of the fighter.

The hull armor covering the engine glowed under the immediate onslaught of the beams, a brief explosive puff occurred as the steel of the impact area vanished, the residual energy only partially dissociating the surrounding matter. The bigger damage came next though as the engine spluttered, its internal electronics vainly trying to work before dying completely.

The fighter listed immediately with the sudden uneven thrust, its aim completely spoiled as only one of its two sets of triple light laser cannons fired, completely missing the cargo ship.

Somehow, Jinx needed no order or prompt, he knew he had to aim just to the left of the heavy fighter.

He pulled the trigger.

Five beams again stabbed out into the night and hit the starboard nacelle.

He buried his amazement at the teamwork that three ARC troopers and two Jedi had just displayed and just waited for another target as the enemy fighter fell out of the sky and disappeared.

Ahsoka grabbed his shoulder and he suddenly felt the Force push down hard but gently all over his body, as if a giant hand was suddenly holding them down. He also perceived she was doing the same for the troopers and even the people in the cargo hold.

The reason became apparent as the cargo ship did a maneuver he had never imagined one doing.

The world suddenly became inverted and then he only saw the sky, before there was a blur and then there were only dark green clouds below them.

The forces he felt acting on his innards could only mean that for some reason their pilot had turned off the inertial dampeners entirely!

He couldn’t be distracted, he had to trust that their pilot knew what he was doing and he felt another moment approaching.

Jinx gritted his teeth as he adjusted his aim and squeezed the trigger.

His was the only rifle that fired.

Another fighter suddenly burst into view, only to catch his disruptor shot directly on forward transparisteel of the rear slung cockpit.

That entire panel of transparisteel vanished as it swiftly disintegrated, exposing the trandoshan pilot inside to a sudden blast of air that hit him with the force of a hurricane wind.

The enemy fighter wobbled and steered erratically, its laser cannon shots missing completely as the trandoshan blindly fired, unable to see.

Ahsoka fired in the next moment and her shot hit the pilot directly, who flashed with bright light as the trandoshan just disintegrated into nothingness.

With no more pilot input and the central fuselage’s electronics completely fried, the fighter began to tumble.

He felt Ahsoka’s telekinetic grip on his body vanish.

Then the Force rushed past him as if he was caught in the current of a vast river.

The dead fighter abruptly lurched to the right, as if a giant had struck it with a vast staff.

The fighter’s hull began to deform and crumple but he saw Ahsoka’s intent moments before it happened.

Another enemy fighter, trying to line up for a shot on them, desperately tried to evade but only managed to run his fighter into a head-on collision.

Shields flared into visibility but failed from the sheer mass of the impact and forces involved. The dead, now disintegrating fighter erupted into an explosive fireball as fuel and hypermatter cooked off. It enveloped the other fighter and destroyed it as well.

Jinx had to close his eyes against the sheer brightness of the conflagration against the backdrop of night. When he sensed he could open them he was vastly relieved to feel the dampeners had been switched back on.

The ship normalized itself and they briefly saw only sky as it dove back down towards the fortress.

‘Well done, Jinx. We got three, the fortress guns managed two… the last fighter fled. Rather cowardly, that one.’

‘Why do I sense then that we’re not out of the desert?’

‘The enemy managed to land one of their ships. It was not just filled with the remnant of the hunter’s guild. We’re outnumbered on the ground and might lose the fortress if we don’t do something. The only good news is that these trandoshans aren’t all armed with disruptors. Guess their pockets aren’t limitless.’

‘What are we going to do?’

‘I think it’s time to introduce my concept for a Spectre gunship to the galaxy.’

‘Spectre what?’

Jinx soon learned just what that meant.

He aimed down his rifle and saw the fortress below. Its large open decks that flanked the pyramidal central structure was a chaotic battlefield of intermingled clone troopers, mandalorians and trandoshans.

‘We have to keep moving so we don’t present an easy target from the ground. Trust in the Force, yourself and see the moment, exactly as you did with the fighters. Ready?’

‘Ready,’ he thought.

He adjusted his aim, feeling, sensing towards the battle below… the critical moment.

‘Begin.’

Jinx squeezed the trigger.

A trandoshan who had been about to throw a thermal detonator disintegrated. The detonator dropped from a nerveless hand that disintegrated in the next moment, it ticked three seconds before exploding.

Two of the enemy hunkering nearby were killed instantly and three more flung bodily out of their cover nearby.

Ahsoka fired next and the ARC troopers as well.

Jinx felt four deaths through the Force, put it aside and focused on his next target.

He squeezed the trigger.

A trandoshan who had gotten the upper hand on a ARC trooper in close quarters combat, who was about to deliver the death blow with a vicious looking knife vanished with a brief orange flash of disintegration.

Beams of death continued to rain out onto the enemy below, delivering relief and salvation to the beleaguered defenders.

Then, as if this battle couldn’t finish providing more surprise and astonishment…

A large door on the side of the fortress pyramid smashed open and a Mantellian Savrip suddenly roared in challenge to the enemy. One huge arm swiped left and caught three trandoshans in its path, sending them flying. The savrip brandished a Z6 rotary blaster cannon in its other hand as easily as a toy and sent streams of blue bolts to further rake through the enemy.

It gave a huge leap and crushed two trandoshans under its feet as it landed behind their cover.

“Frak!” shouted Ahsoka.

Her hand shot forward into an open palm.

He felt a Force Push blasting outward and it caught a shoulder launched missile that streaked up towards them from the enemy.

The missile exploded just twenty meters short, spending itself on nothing but air.

Jinx sighted and fired, disintegrating the trandoshan who had nearly killed everyone on board.

Ahsoka nimbly jumped to her feet.

“Chewie! Land us on the south-east side!” she shouted. Her shout bleeding over through the Force to him.

The ship immediately began to descend, even as the ARC troopers and Ahsoka continued firing below.

Jinx fired as well, disintegrating another enemy. ‘Why?’ he thought.

‘Getting too dangerous to stay in the air. The enemy has gotten over their surprise and we’re damn lucky they haven’t sent disruptor shots of their own at us yet. That will change now.’

The ship touched down and the troopers jumped off before the landing had even completed properly, firing at the closest enemy and charging into cover.

Ahsoka reached down to her belt and unclipped one of her lightsabers and handed it over to him. He accepted it mutely.

“Ready to be a Jedi again, Jinx?”

He stood and it felt like his heart would explode from emotion just at the sheer feel of the Jedi weapon in his hand. Familiar, yet not. He thumbed the activation switch and felt Ahsoka do something through the Force as well.

The green blade burst into life.

Her own blade of mixed obsidian black and luminous white burst to life, as well as another green blade in her left hand.

“I am,” he declared.

The green blade came into a Soresu guard position and they both charged into battle.

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A/N: Yeah, disruptors are not nice, but when your back is against the wall, you'll reach for anything that will let you survive.  Hope you enjoyed the read. Have a great weekend and stay awesome.