Chell Raddus’s eye twitched as he stood ready to strike their unsuspecting shuttle pilot. The Clone, who had introduced himself as Riggs on the flight, was standing at attention, helmet held tightly to his side. His eyes grew wide as the Mon Calamari violently spun to face him, however, the trained trooper held his ground and refused to flinch.
“I apologize for the interruption General, I didn’t mean to startle you like that. I didn’t even know Jedi could be startled if I’m being honest, Sir…”
The young apprentice sighed in quiet relief.
The pilot was still new to him, so that must have been the strange presence he was sensing. It initially came across odd that he hadn’t felt like the other Clones at first, but Chell had spent enough time around Commander Frank and Frostbite Company to know that all of the troopers were individual lifeforms, despite their similar outward appearances.
“Go on, trooper,” the Tarsunt Jedi Master Mon’grell Kbatha said as he looked at the Clone in curiosity.
“Yes sir, sorry sir. I just came to relay some news to you from the temple back on Coruscant. General Windu was trying to contact you.”
“Where are the others?” Chell asked, looking over towards the ridge. He could barely make out the top fin of their Eta-class shuttle peaking over the hill.
“The Commander is in the shuttle setting up the holoprojector for your meeting, and Sergeant Moon disembarked to chase after a… “noise” that he said he kept hearing, so I was the only one available to come and get you. My apologies for leaving my post.”
“No worries, trooper,” Mon’grell asked as he gathered his cloak and staff, “But you mentioned a meeting?”
“Yes General, a message was sent out summoning all Jedi Masters to a formal assembly to discuss emergency updates relating to the war effort. He mentioned something about the start of a campaign on Cato Nemoidia, as well as the current status of both Mygeeto and Scipio.”
“My oh my, what is the council getting themselves into now,” the old Jedi said as he rubbed his hairy chin and smiled disdainfully. Then he took a deep breath and spun his body in a slow, full circle, eyeing the surrounding terrain carefully.
“They’re in over their heads, I can tell you that much,” he exclaimed with a loud breath.
Chell and Riggs looked at eachother, unsure of which one of them he was addressing.
“I am not at liberty to comment on that, sir,” the Clone spoke up in a slightly inquisitive tone.
“Ah yes, I understand,” Master Kbatha said, his eyes still wildly taking in his surroundings as if this was the first time he had ever stepped foot outside. He waved his hand towards the pilot in a shooing motion while looking back down at his cloak, “run on back to the ship and make sure everything is in order, my padawan and I will be there… momentarily.”
The trooper saluted, “Affirmative General, I’ll make sure Commander Frank knows that-”
At that exact moment the pilot’s eyes rolled up into his head and Chell noticed something small was lodged into his neck, right above where the GAR’s standard bodysuit cut off.
“Trooper?” the young Jedi called out to him, but Riggs had already collapsed onto the ground, his pilot’s helmet tumbling away down the slight incline.
Chell then heard two blaster shots ring out from behind him in quick succession. Master Kbatha instinctively rolled to the side and disappeared into the tall grasses as the bolts struck the rock he had previously been meditating on.
The Mon Calamari glanced once more at the downed trooper, and then for his master, before finally turning to see who had launched the attack on them. By the time he had turned, the cloaked assailant was towering above him, only centimeters away from his face.
He couldn’t see their face, but he could tell they were tall… very tall. Smoking blaster still in one hand, the attacker raised their other arm and Chell saw a noticeable glint. Their arm was silver and robotic, sporting a number of small spigots and nozzles.
In a single swift movement, one of the small muzzles extending from the metal palm was lined up only a hair’s width from the Jedi’s face. In an instinctive action gleaned from years of rigorous training, Chell propelled his hand upward, summoning a small updraft with the Force. The bionic arm was pushed up and away from his face the moment the attacker activated one of the weapons.
Instead of any sort of blaster bolt or even flame, green fumes were emitted from the spout. Immediately Chell began to feel his eyes burn and his vision grew blurry. The last thing he saw before he was forced to close his eyes in pain was the face of the aggressor. The Force blast had knocked their hood back, and he now saw it was a green-skinned, female, reptilian Frenk.
She snarled in an almost gleeful fashion and backflipped away from him as his eyes swelled shut. He could tell the plumes were some sort of toxic gas, most likely Dioxis. He covered his nostrils with his wide webbed hand and gritted his teeth as he attempted to squeeze his gills shut. If it was a knockout gas like Dioxis or anything even more potent, having the gas enter any of his open orifices could spell serious trouble. Fortunately, the gust created by the Force had quickly lifted and dissipated the gaseous clouds into the sky above him.
“Master?!” Chell yelled out, hearing no response.
He could no longer see at all and lost his balance, falling down and behind the rock that had served as his pedestal a moment earlier.
After a few seconds of an eternity of silence, he finally heard a voice call out. However, it wasn’t that of his Master. Instead, the assassin was speaking up from somewhere on the far side of the rock.
“Looks like you’re all alone now, kid,” she exclaimed in a taunting tone. “And I’m not leaving here without at least one of you Jedi.”
Chell furiously rubbed at his eyes in an attempt to regain some semblance of vision, but he was only making them sear even more. If he couldn’t see or reach his enemy, he needed to try to rationalize with her.
“You want me alive, don’t you? Even I know that Dioxis isn’t lethal,” Chell cried out, trying to speak with confidence between gritted teeth. He had no idea what the gas actually was, but a bluff was the only plan he could reasonably conceive at the moment.
“That’s the idea,” she replied with a laugh, and Chell could now tell she had moved locations, although her voice was still fairly distant. At the very least he had a few more seconds to salvage the situation.
“Our friend Count Dooku’s put a big bounty out for the head of any Jedi. There’s a few he’s paying more for dead, but you aren’t one of them, fish boy. So it looks like you’ll be coming with me alive… mostly.”
So it was the Separatists. Karrabast.
“I’ve just contacted the squad of Clones on our shuttle and they’re on their way here now. You won’t stand a chance, so might as well give up now.”
There was a moment of silence before he heard the Frenk burst out into maniacal laughter. She sounded much closer now.
“Nice try kiddo, but your Clones are already being taken care of. Like I said, you’re all alone out here now,” she said in bemusement.
Shoot, one bluff too many.
Chell now wished his Master had allowed him to bring his lightsaber or even a comlink with them out here in the wilderness. Instead, Kbatha had made him leave them in the care of Clone Commander Frank. His lightsaber was supposed to be his life, an extension of his body. So what kind of master made his padawan, one with latent Force abilities no less, train without it?
“You know, I don’t think I’ve ever actually seen a Jedi run before? Did your Master seriously just ditch you?”
This got his attention, as she did have a point.
Where had Master Kbatha gone? Had he been struck when dove into the grass? Did he really just leave his young Padawan to die or be captured?
Maybe he really was a coward. It could explain his track record of deceased padawans.
“No, she was just trying to get into my head,” he muttered to himself.” He would worry about his Jedi mentor later. If he wasn’t going to be of any help, regardless of the circumstance, then Chell would just have to do this himself. Force powers or not, he was still a Jedi. And after so many of his elders and peers had perished over the past two and a half years, he knew that Jedi seldom went down without a fight.
“You know, I lost an arm to a Jedi once? I don’t plan on making that mistake again,” she declared, and it sounded like she was much closer now. He was surprised it had taken her this long to strike in the first place.
It was now or nothing… Chell began to try and recall his training, clinging to the last lessons that his Master had taught him.
“Eyes closed.”
Though they were filled with saltwater tears, the young Jedi relaxed his eyelids. The pain began to dampen as he drifted off into the depths of his mind.
“Just breathe.”
Chell inhaled a deep breath, the faint stench of the Dioxis still lingering on his clothes. He could now smell the grass and earth around him. The brisk, damp wind whistled past his head as he listened for his attacker’s next move.
“Controlled, fluid motions.”
Until he could discern her strength and location, he would need to stay on the defensive. Preparing to dodge incoming attacks would be his greatest advantage.
“Muscles firm, arms out, feet set apart, knees slightly bent, back taut and straight…”
Still crouched, he silently moved his body into a readied stance. Like a sprinter, he was now kneeled in the perfect posture to make a quick movement.
“Trust your mind more than your eyes.”
Chell placed his hand on the large stone beside him. He hadn’t gotten a great look at his surroundings, and the last thing he wanted to do was take off in a full sprint and collide straight into another one of the nearby boulders. He reached out with the Force, feeling his essence slowly creep and expand over everything around him.
Like water flowing over a riverbed, he was quickly able to surmise the landscape directly surrounding him in every direction. He could feel every blade of grass, every mound of dirt, and especially every large, rocky outcrop. There were definitely more rocks surrounding him than he initially thought, but he would use that to his advantage instead of treating them as an obstacle.
“Focus on my words first, then your surroundings, then your body, and finally your thoughts.”
Chell’s thoughts were already overwhelming, like a storm engulfing an entire world. He felt fear, uncertainty, abandonment, anxiety, loneliness, anger, confusion. Far too many emotions that could cloud his crucial judgment. He took another breath and remembered back to his early days as a Jedi youngling, when they had first taught him how to focus on one singular ideal. A singular point in your mind where you could focus as all earthly worries melted away. There was a phrase they used to help clear their minds of any and all distractions.
“I am one with the Force and the Force is with me.”
Now feeling only his surroundings, he reached out for any indication of his foe. That foreign presence that he had felt so strongly before; the one he had momentarily mistaken for their Clone pilot.
“I am one with the Force and the Force is with me.”
He was now audibly whispering the mantra under his breath. His opponent clearly already knew where he was, so stealth was not a primary concern.
“I am one with the Force and the Force is with me.”
He could feel Riggs sprawled out a few meters away. He was still very much alive, just deeply unconscious. Chell rapidly sent another pulse of feelers out around him. Where could she be?
“I am one with the Force and the Force is with me…”
There-!
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