Poster Child

[Acaadi]

The armoured airspeeder carrying the prisoners didn't slow down. They kept flying through the trees, perhaps fearful that an even larger ambush would await them if they descended to land.

The holes in the bonnet of his airspeeder smouldered but he kept on flying. The backup repulsors would have gently taken him down to the ground if main power had been cut.

Acaadi said a particularly un-jedi-like word as he saw more lights in the trees ahead. More jetpacks. He started waving furiously at Kyra and Reggie; they would not have heard him over the wind.

Red light streaked through the sky and suddenly one of the two escorts was on fire. More blaster bolts were poured into the strange wookie craft and it tumbled from the sky.

 

[Kyra Perl]

Kyra grunted, the sweat on her skin being the only thing keeping her sticking to the ship as it whizzed through the trees. "Training... sabers," she coughed. "Always comes back to bite me." She stood, only to flinch and duck at the explosion that occurred to the right of them. "No!" She gasped, feeling a life inside of it snuff out in an instant. Her heart beat slammed in her ears, the world spinning around her. She was back on the slaving ship.... she was shooting... they were...

She did not see Acaadi's warning. She did not see the other jetpacked men, either, or the gun they raised to shoot across the wing of the ship. Something vital exploded on the wing, a wretched noise filling the air as the whole craft started to veer dooooownwards at an almost graceful angle. Not lethal, Kyra recognized immediately. But...

"We're not gonna make it! They're gonna board them them here!" In the middle of the jungle. No help besides their own for leagues. Yikes.

Kyra grabbed onto an airvent, holding on for dear life as the other wing clipped a tree and sent them spinning.

 

[Reggie Faayare]

Reggie saw Acaadi waving his hands but the Padawan couldn't react in time. The ship had already been hit when he turned, already took unrecoverable damage that sent the ship down. Throwing himself onto the craft to desperately grab onto something, he was able to hold on as the ship hit a tree. The spinning proved to be a bit much for Reggie's grip though, the Padawan being thrown off the transport and crashing against a tree, which followed up with some pain.

It took three seconds to regain his breath and stand. "Kyra?!" He started running to where the ship had crashed, though was stopped by a blaster bolt that came towards him. Snapping his right hand up and activating his lightsaber barely saved him from taking the shot, deflecting it away from him. The Mando that shot him dropped to the ground and aimed his weapon at the Padawan, another landing soon after him. I do not like these odds, sooo" Reggie dashed to a nearby tree to hide behind. Blaster bolts whizzed past him. Reggie couldn't take on two of highly trained warriors. He could hold them off proficiently, but they would eventually surround him or tire him out. Reggie had to fight with his mind instead of using brute force.

Reggie ran from tree to tree, deflecting any shots that came too close for comfort and throwing a few rocks at the mercenaries as he did so. It wouldn't take them down, but it would prevent them from moving towards the crashed ship and possibly regrouping with others. Kyra and Acaadi were probably dealing with a few themselves, so keeping their attention on himself was the best option at the moment.

 

[Acaadi]

Another few bolts went through the front of his airspeeder. They had brought a convoy to deal with civil unrest and not a trained company of mandalorians. Up close he had seen their famed t-shape visors. At least it looked as if they were wearing durasteel rather than beskar.

Not that it made much different when you had a training saber. Plates of durasteel were probably enough to make it very difficult to do them damage.

One of the wookie Escort ships was down and out. Acaadi could only watch as the transport vehicle also made an emergency crash landing.

Acaadi flew past overhead and could only watch as several more jetpack-equipped mercenaries dropped to the forest floor. Warning lights started to flash across his console. He felt his airspeeder judder as the engines started to fail.

Once again he said a word that would not have been permitted within the academy halls.

He fought with the controls, bringing the airspeeder around. He was already loosing height rapidly. His heart thundered as he realised that all he could do was choose the place to crash.

Acaadi angled his nose towards the prisoner transport, picking out a mandalorian is dusty brown armour. The mandalorian turned to see him coming and raised his arm. A jet of flames rose from the mandalorian's arm to meet him, but Acaadi couldn't change course now. He ducked beneath the windshield as the hot air rushed over him.

A moment later and he was sure he felt his ribcage bounce off the chair as his airspeeder struck the ground. It skipped off and carried on another twenty metres before it came to a halt, wrapped in vines and smoking where the blaster bolts had struck it.

 

[Kyra Perl]

Kyra's ears rang as she came to to find herself wrapped around a tree. Smoke billowed out around her, a broken off wing smoldering inside a pile of shrubbery. Kyra coughed, shaking out her head as she shakily pried herself up.

"Acaaaadi?" The world wobbled, visions of metal men dropping to the ground in weird patterns up ahead. "Reggie? No..." She uttered weakly. The mane-metal people were cutting at the transporter's door. Their numbers more than halved as her vision settled, showing a group of five.

"No!" She called out, drawing the attention of one. It raised its blaster. Her saber jumped into her hand, hissing to life as she reflected the shot away. Her world 'whaloomped', dejavu shuddering through her core as her hand rang from the impact. From across the clearing more shots fired out, aimed at the feet of the mad- silver people. The guards, she recognized. The other ships they had flown with! Back up was coming.

Back up was in the form of two guards. She could practically feel the steel like determination ringing from the transport ship as the comrades inside prepared to defend from the inside out.

Kyra hurriedly touched at her healed shoulder, seeking reassurance before looking around. A few weeks ago she would have gone running in guns a blazing into this moment. Now she hesitated, thinking of Nida's face when she had learned of Kyra's injuries.


"Acaaaadi," she screeched, turning from the face off. They needed more numbers. She couldn't- she needed-

 

[Reggie Faayare]

As Reggie was moving from cover to cover, he heard blaster fire not too far away and a loud voice calling for Acaadi. They must be close. Now if he could just take down these two mercenaries, he could go help. No time to wait it out, it was time to take action. The Padawan ran out of his cover, lightsaber first. The shots fired at him were easily deflected and some even redirected at his opponents, but the shots only staggered them. Not surprising considering the Mandalorians always came well equipped.

When he was close enough, Reggie brought up both of his hands and used the force, energy lifting the two off their feet. One of the Silver clad fighters flipped over in the air and hit a tree. The other was able to use his jetpack to gain control again. Moving quickly, Reggie closed the distance between the one who had crashed into the tree. The warrior was beginning to stand but Reggie stopped him by using force stasis, freezing the Mando in place. This would prevent his opponent from moving for awhile but it drained the Padawan considerably. He hadn't gotten to the point where he could use the ability without expending too much energy.

The other Mandalorian had taken this time to grapple Reggie and make him crash into another tree. Before he could retaliate, the Padawan was kneed in the gut and took another hit to the head, forcing him to fall to the ground. The pain Reggie felt was making it difficult to defend himself. Summoning what strength he could when out of breath, Reggie used swept one hand up to push his attacker back. It was weak, only making his attacker stagger backwards a bit. It was enough though. Rolling to the side and taking in a quick breath, Reggie brought up both of his hands to try to put his opponent in stasis like the other. His eyes were closed, expecting a fist to crack across his jaw. When he opened his eyes the Mandalorian was standing in place. Ah, it worked.

Wasting little time, Reggie moved to Kyra's position. The two he fought should be in stasis for maybe one minutes, so he had to be quick. They would come back to reinforce their friends but at least Reggie will have backup to detain them by then.

 

[Acaadi]

Acaadi could hear the roar of a wookie, the sting of a blaster shot, Kyra's voice calling his name. His world was spinning and he had to will it to stop. The airspeeder was buckled in the middle, but his foot-well and seat were in tact. The same couldn't be said for the mandalorian he had skipped over. A web of vines had brought him to a gradual halt. If he had struck the base of the tree he likely wouldn't have been getting back up yet. Possible not ever.

His saber wouldn't even cut a damn vine. He had to crawl and push himself through the tangled mess. He emerged to face a mandalorian.

Acaadi briefly studied the armour. Each one cared for their weapons and armour religiously. It was made of interlocking plates over a network of components. This one had regular durasteel plates. Mandalorian iron was rare.

"Just a kid," muttered the mandalorian, helmet muffling his voice. "You are my enemy. This is the way."

Too much time mentally debating gunning down a teenager. Long enough for Acaadi to stretch out with the Force. The mandalorian's jet pack suddenly activated as Acaadi pressed down on the control button. There was a roar of jets, a scream and a thunk as the mandalorian struck a tree. They hung limp from the jet has it carried them spinning into the forest.

He rushed to Kyra to arrive with Reggie. This was all too soon. Kyra had been stung deep by her wounds and not in the flesh. He needed more time to reflect, to find a sense of balance and control. Above all he needed a real lightsaber.

"They're determined to get into the transport," he said, though it was obvious. He picked a blaster bolt out of the air and moved to shield Kyra's left side.

"The transport is too open!" He could hear more jetpacks coming and the transport was easy to reach from the air in the clearing. Not that he saw any way to change that.

 

[Kyra Perl]

Kyra stood there, her saber limp and aimed at the ground. It was only the sabers of the two besides her that deflected shots, responding to the threats aimed at them as she just... wavered in place.

"We can't do this," She whispered into the air. They were just a group of three. Three kids.

Kyra watched in numb horror as silver people regrouped into one mass before her own people could do the same. One by one, the small parties of SJO guards were deflected, killed, or forced back. Their group as a whole was too scattered, and their loose formation made their numbers weak compared to the solid grouping of Mandelorians(Sp?) converging on the transport ship. She grabbed at both their arms before they could respond to the urge to run in.

Help.

Back their people up. It was what they were trained for after all, and it was the terms of their assignment, even if they were never intended to actually have to follow through on it. But this time Kyra recognized one thing that she had failed to before.

"It's suicide."

The silver people fell into formation, the first row shooting into the treeline to keep the guards back while the inner grouping broke their way into the transport ship. An electric buzz hissed throughout the clearing as the doors were short circuited open. Open fire came from inside the ship, but none was fired in. Clearly, the lizard people were precious cargo. The silver people charged in.

 

[Reggie Faayare]

Reggie arrived to the seen just as Acaadi did, the both of them regrouping with Kyra and deflecting shots that came their way. Considering the saber that was pointed to the ground, Kyra seemed to have lost moral. That was even clearer when she said that they couldn't do this. Reggie wouldn't give up though, even though things weren't in their favor.

They didn't have the backup they needed to preform an attempt on on the mercenaries and Reggie was the only one with a real lightsaber. Maybe he could give his lightsaber to Kyra or Acaadi. That making him rely on his force abilities and improvise for himself, but at least they could make a more offensive push....possibly. Could he hold off all their enemies while his companions made an escape attempt with the prisoners? No, that's impossible. Reggie was proficient in Soresu, which was good when defending against blaster fire and physical attacks, but he wasn't good enough to defend against so many professional warriors. Even if he was an expert, the task would be difficult and it wouldn't mean the Mandalorians wouldn't be able to capture his allies anyway. Then....what options did they have? Reggie couldn't find a way out of this that without major casualties or failing their objective. They had no advantage that he could exploit to turn the tide. Dang it.

If they stood here and just did nothing, they would fail for sure. Reggie would have to give it his all to protect the remaining guards and prevent this from being a failure, even if it meant he had to kill the mercenaries, something he didn't want to do. Not that he would be able to take on such heavily armed and well trained warriors, but he had to try. The Padawan started to move but was stopped by a hand. "Kyra?" Kyra's words were simple and very true. They couldn't stop them with what they had.

Seeing the Mercenaries gain access to the ship and move in made Reggie sick. It reminded him of those times where he was useless to the others because of his fear. He was a child then though. He could actually try to stop this but it would lead to the death of him and others. The Padawan couldn't tell if not being to help because of fear, or not being able to help because of circumstance was worse. They both made him sick to his stomach. He was utterly useless in this moment.

 

[Acaadi]

"Back to the trees," Acaadi said. His voice was surprisingly stern. Kyra was right. He should have come to understand the situation sooner. This was a large, organised and well armed group of mandalorians.

The wookie escorts were mostly dead. The silver guards retreating. A few slavers didn't seem to warrant a group of crack mercenaries. None of them could have seen this coming.

Acaadi had been trying to keep his emotions in check since the incident with the slavers. Now those same trandoshan were being rescued on his watch. It was a difficult pill to swallow.

"Carefully, back behind the roots at least," he said. Several blaster bolts lanced out to meet them. Acaadi let the Force guide his arm and deflected them. Step by step be backed away, keeping his saber in front of his chest to protect his body. Just as it had been in a hundred lessons with drones.

"We need reinforcements,", Acaadi grunted. It wasn't coming.

 

[Kyra Perl]

Kyra slowly slid a step back, feeling disconnected from her own legs as they picked up and moved deeper into the tree lines. The bullets shot their way were soon distracted to another direction, the three left alone once they pushed back into the retreat. This wasn't a massacre. Just a mission. And the objective was the slavers. Slowly, the clearing grew quiet. Every sjo guard and wookie warrior was forced back into the trees, leaving the alert silver people unmolested.

The sounds of a fight inside the ship calmed to a quiet. Kyra's ears pulsed with her heartbeat, no other sound reaching her. She felt the force leave the body of someone nearby. Friend or foe, she couldn't tell. The flickering sensation left her attention as fast as it entered it.

The silver people led the lizard people out. On cue a new, much smaller transport ship appeared above. A ladder dropped. The four remaining lizards people were attached on, their body's protected from a new wave of sjo shots erupting through the tree line.The padawan's didn't even have guns. A wave of returned fire at the trees protected the lizard people's back.

And then they were flown away. The silver people kicked out of clearing one by one, the roar of jetpacks the last thing to mark the departure of a very well done, professional hit. Kyra's knees buckled, her breath catching. "We've failed..."

 

[Reggie Faayare]

Reggie deflected incoming fire with Acaadi, retreating back into the forest as they did so. Eventually, they weren't being shot at anymore and the sound of blasters being fired decreased as the remaining opposition for the Mandalorians either retreated, were knocked out, or killed. Despite the strong urge to keep fighting, to prevent the mercenaries from achieving their goal, Reggie didn't make any attempt to try again. He knew it meant death. There wasn't anything he could do now.

As another transport ship came to pick up the prisoners and then they were gone. No one here could stop them at this moment, which was just irritating. They were definitely a professional group who were payed to retrieve the slavers, but the fact they were able to land on Kashyyyk and perform the task with such ease meant they had to of had help from the inside. A bit of anger and shame began to well up in Reggie. His body was beginning to shake uncontrollably and he felt as though he was going to throw up. All Reggie could think about was how much he was how much he wanted to get away from the area. 'This is no time to be overwhelmed with your failure Reggie'. The thought calmed him down a bit, taking a few deep breathes to focus.

Reggie looked for any of the Silver Guards that were still around the area and was uninjured. After finding a few, he quickly went to speak. "I'm going to need some of you to contact the Rangers and call for a medic if you haven't already. Also, one of you contact the Silver Assembly and give them a brief rundown of what happened here. Ask for a Jedi to come to the area so I can give them the full details of what happened and so they can assist with the injured. Any Jedi Knight or Master will do, but ask for my Master if you can, Josh Dragonsflame. I'll go take account of the casualties we've taken and help heal anyone that needs it." Word had probably already reached the Silver Assembly and there were probably people on their way now to the area, but it was still good to call in.

Before taking off to find any wounded, Reggie turned back to Acaadi and Kyra. "Take a breather if you guys need to. I'm going to check for the injured." Reggie was about to take off, but stopped. He turned to face his fellow Padawans again, though this time his face softened and the vulnerable, ashamed part of him showed again. "I'm...I'm sorry." Sorry for not doing enough, for not being experienced enough to stop what had happened. Reggie didn't dwell too much on it though, for if he did he would break down and be lost in his thoughts on what he should have done to prevent what had happened, even though there was no way he could have known and therefor no way for him to have prepared for what transpired.

Reggie pushed his emotions down, moving to help any that weren't killed in the attack.

 

[Acaadi]

"We've failed..."

Those words struck Acaadi to his core. There were people dead on the ground and it was failure that cut deep. It was not something he was accustomed to. At every stage of life he had succeeded, he had excelled. Being chosen to become a padawan of the Silver Jedi Order and then becoming one of the top students in the class had given him a sense of invincibility. Not in the sense that he was blaster proof, but that it would be almost inconceivable.

There should have been something to say. He looked to Kyra and then to Reggie. His expression was blank as Reggie apologised. Acaadi simply slumped against a tree.

The mirialan was there for a few seconds before he slowly nodded his head.

"Help the wounded...right..." It was almost pure reflex to realise that was more important than dwelling on his own shortcomings.