12 Reinforcements

Jaden, Aubrie and Zule lay flat on their stomach as they looked out towards the hill with a pair of macrobinoculars —Lock had a pair as well and he watched the hill from a little further away.

"Looks like they're taking a beating," Lock commented as he zoomed in and saw all the craters that had been formed from artillery shots, as well as numerous dead Clones. The environmental conditions while stormy had cleared up a considerable amount leaving them as sitting ducks on that hill. Even from where they were they could feel the vibrations of the missiles exploding; there was a constant barrage of blaster fire coming from down atop the hill —as well as below— this let them know that the Clones were still fighting strong.

"What are your orders sir," Lock asked as he put the macrobionculars down and looked over towards Jaden who did the same.

"Surely we have to help them," Aubrie stated with certainty.

"How? We only have two squads with us, and we don't know how many men the enemy has, they are a lost cause we should regroup at Choal with Master Norcuna," Zule replied a little coldly.

"There are nearly a hundred men down there, we cannot turn our backs on them, if we do nothing we doom them to die," Aubrie said in a calm and collected voice.

Jaden looked on thoughtfully, in truth he wasn't thinking much about either of the Padawan's opinions and instead was considering something else 'Those troops down there have thrusters on their feet that let them traverse the mud, and there is also that big tank to worry about, if we did try to leave and go around them then there's a chance they might catch us and we'd all die," Jaden thought to himself as he sighed.

He knew the risk of the enemy knowing they were there at the moment wasn't great. But he had to consider the possibility that it could happen, as the enemy had a greater knowledge of the terrain, better manoeuvrability and more numbers. 'If we leave and they catch us, we are dead,' Jaden thought to himself. Logic dictated he left but his instincts urged him to stay.

"Lock what's your opinion?" Jaden asked, surprising the ARC trooper. In the Clone Commandos experience, it was uncommon for a Jedi to ask their opinions despite them being bred for war. While it did happen, it was rare that the Jedi followed through on the Clone's advice, often leading to average strategies that led to more loss of life than necessary.

"We've lost thousands since coming here sir, we need all the men we can get, but you should also consider the blow losing three Jedi would have to the main forces if the plan should fail," Lock simply stated. While he didn't want to abandon his brothers he kept his vision on the big picture; Jedi were more valuable than they were, they were superhuman and could take out dozens of battle droids effortlessly. Even if there were ten times as many clones on that hill, three Jedi were with more.

Jaden nodded as he considered Lock's advice. Regardless of what happens Jaden needed to reach Choal if we were ever gonna leave this planet; if he tried to go around and leave the clones to their fate then it's possible the enemy could find them next—if they assume that there are more survivors from the escape pods. Jaden quickly came to the conclusion that having greater numbers would improve the likelihood of them reaching Choal. They also had a greater chance of defeating the enemy here in a defensible location rather than while they were travelling.

But the question remained "How can we defeat the enemy..." he whispered to himself.

"Did you say something, Master?" Aubrie asked as she was the closest to him.

Jaden looked at her "We will help them," he said firmly.

"We won't even be able to reach them let alone help them!" Zule said as she stood up and brushed the muddy earth from her body.

"She's right sir, unless you have a good plan then the risk isn't worth it," Lock added.

Jaden looked back out to the hill and brought the macrobinoculars to his face. He saw a few escape pods that hadn't been blown up by the enemy Artillery 'That could work...' he thought to himself as he felt an idea pop into his head. But before he could do it he'd need to stop the enemy from bombarding their position, luckily it seemed they only had one Hailfire tank with them.

"Lock, get the men ready, you're going to ambush the enemy forces at the base of the hill, but keep a distance away from them or you might get caught in the blast radius," Jaden ordered.

"Blast radius sir?" Lock said a little uneasily.

"Padawan Wyn and Xiss I need you to get to the top of the hill, once you are I need you to move the escape pods to the edge of the hill and set them to self-destruct, then roll them down." Jaden placed his macrobinoculars down as he gave them their orders.

"You need to be as fast as you can, Lock and the other men depend on you," Jaden continued.

"Sir we won't be able to do any of that while that hill is being bombarded by enemy artillery," Lock stated.

"Which is why I'll be taking out the tank, once you see the explosion that'll be the signal to commence the attack," Jaden replied.

"Master Katarn, are you sure that is wise? Perhaps a less risky plan of action would be better," Aubrie said with a barely perceptible hint of concern.

Jaden shook his head "This is the best plan in the situation, in the storm I should have enough cover to sneak up behind them and destroy the tank, if I don't... then you should retreat," Jaden stated.

Jaden looked towards Lock "Keep the assassin knocked out, I've seen what she can do, no doubt she'll try to escape if we leave her with only a couple of guards," he instructed.

"Yes sir," Lock said as he got and and started implementing Jaden's orders.

"Between the destruction of their artillery and Locks ambush you should have enough time to get the escape pods to the edge of the hill," Jaden said to both Padawans.

"It might be a bit difficult lifting something so large but we will try Master Katarn," Aubrie said with a bow.

"This plan is stupid and we will probably all end up dying... Master," Zule said with an annoyed growl as she stood up and followed Aubrie.

Jaden snickered as he watched them leave. "I wouldn't be risking my own life if I didn't think it wouldn't work, I'm not as selfless as you lot," he whispered as she left. He had the easiest job out of all of them; most of the troops would be at the base of the hill, and once he blew the tank up they'd be distracted by the ambush.

He'd be fine

———————————————————-

Jaden kept low to the ground as he traversed across the muddy terrain. He had been moving as fast as he could but the storm and the mud made it difficult, but he had made progress and he was now coming up on the enemy encampment; Jaden felt lucky it wasn't night as he would've had a lot more trouble trying to find them.

In the distance, he could see the hailfire tank launching missile after missile towards the hill—the red glow of the weapons flashing through the storm like a flare. As he got closer he realised that there were more people in the camp than he had previously imagined 'Kriff!' He thought to himself as he kept moving with his hood up and weapon out. Multiple canopies had been set up as a temporary base; from what Jaden could see they had a place for communications, an armoury and a place for the the men to sleep.

He couldn't see any Battle droids leading him to believe that the enemy forces were only made up of Jabiimi Nationalists 'Shame, from what I've seen the droids are morons,' he thought to himself as he crept closer. Jaden saw a few nationalists who were guarding the flank but luckily there was enough space between them that Jaden could take them out without alerting the other.

Channelling the force through his body he started moving faster while keeping low to the ground. All the while the Jabiimi soldier stood there with his blaster rifle in hand; Jaden slipped up behind the guard and using his force-enhanced strength snapped his neck. The soldier collapsed to the ground—the mud muffled the sound of his body hitting the floor; Jaden rushed to the next one only this soldier had already begun to turn as he did. Seeing the young Jedi rushing towards him his eyes widened and he went to shout only to find he couldn't; pressure started to form around his throat, stopping him from breathing.

Jaden then pulled with his hand making the soldier stumble forward and trip on the muddy ground; Jaden spun and ignited his lightsaber, as he decapitated the man. He then quickly extinguished the blade to not catch any attention. Jaden continued onwards as he got closer to his target, but first, he made his way to the communications centre. He couldn't take the risk that they call for reinforcements so he'd need to sabotage their equipment.

He crouched just outside the canopy and looked over the barrier that had been placed outside; inside two people were working the good equipment—Jaden could handle two of them without drawing any attention to himself. He hopped over the barrier and kept sneaking; he would need to get as close as he could before killing them otherwise he might risk them alerting the camp.

The first soldier turned around as the sound of a snap and low thrum caught his attention though that sound was the last thing he ever heard as his upper body slid off his lower body. The second guard didn't even get to turn around and found himself looking down at the blue lightsaber sticking from his chest. Jaden pulled upwards splitting his head in half before sticking his lightsaber in the comms equipment; it was a rather crude way of doing but he didn't have much time.

The small explosion was bound to draw attention so Jaden quickly made himself scarce before continuing towards the tank. He got close to it but saw a group of five soldiers who seemed to be restocking the ammunition of the hailfire 'Fuck it,' he thought to himself as he pulled a blaster pistol he had stolen while in the camp and shot the ammunition pile causing a large explosion; the Hailfire tank who was close by was caught in the explosion and joined the ammunition in the inferno of flames it had become.

Jaden was blown back by the force of the explosion—not expecting it to be as strong as it was—though he managed to flip midair and land on his feet—skidding through the mud.

...

Lock who had been prone in the mud with sixteen of his clone brothers was waiting in the storm. It unsettled his stomach as he had to watch the separatist puppets shoot at his brothers on the hill, but he wouldn't disobey his orders; the plan that Jaden had proposed was a good one, and Lock would've doubted it even came from a Jedi had he not been present himself.

What he doubted the Jedi Knight accounted for was the amount of enemies that were at the base of the hill. From his rough estimate, he'd say there were at least 300 Jabiimi nationalists there, and with only sixteen men he was expected to ambush them and hold them off until two Padawans greenies could send those escape pods tumbling down the hill.

"Looks like we might be a bit fucked here eh?" Lock said to the other clones who chuckled at the dire situation they found themselves in.

*BOOM*

The cloudy sky was lit up in flames as a large explosion occurred west of their position. Lock and the Clones weren't the only ones who saw it; the Jabiimi Nationalists looked back in anger as they saw their armoured support go up in flames. "Alright time to get to work boys!" Lock shouted as he stood up from the mud and started firing on the Jabiimi from behind. They had managed to get reasonably close as they crawled prone after covering themselves with mud, a barrage of blaster fire hit the Jabiimi forces by surprise and took a number of them out straight away. They were still being hit by the Clones from the hill so a large number had no idea they were being flanked.

However, Lock's good fortune wouldn't last forever. The Jabiimi quickly got a hold of themselves and started firing back at Locks forces who took cover behind some natural rock formations.

*BOOM*

One of Locks' men was blown up by a missile blast from some heavy weaponry. Much to Lock's frustration they didn't have any assault teams so they'd have to make do with the thermal detonators that they had. Explosions were going off left and right as mud splattered on their armour; clones kept on dying as the Jabiimi forces started to push forward. Their numbers advantage made it so that even sticking your head out of cover was dangerous, and so the rate of fire on Lock's side started to decrease.

The wise move now would be to retreat but if they moved too far away the damage from the escape pods would be negligible. They'd have to stay here and die if the plan was going to work.

*Snap-Hiss*

Lock looked as the bright glow of a lightsaber engulfed his vision. Jaden deflected multiple blaster bolts back at their senders before reaching out with the force and grabbing the soldier with a missile launcher; he turned the man so he was facing his allies and used the force to press the trigger, causing an explosion and turning all the men there in blood and body parts.

Jaden jumped backwards as more blaster fire was sent in his direction; before bringing up his lightsaber and deflecting even more. "Lock spread your men out, their fire is too concentrated," Jaden commanded.

"Yes sir!" Lock shouted back before rushing behind him.

Jaden using his enhanced body rushed behind some rocks as he breathed deeply. This was hard, a lot harder than it was in the simulation; the blaster bolts hit so hard, it made his hands tremble—or was that the fear? Jaden had to admit he was a little scared, but he couldn't stand back and do nothing, the plan would've failed if the Jabiimi got too far away from the base of the hill.

*BOOM*

Jaden was thrown forward into the mud as an explosion detonated in front of the rock he was behind. He felt his vision darken. He gasped for breath as he pushed himself up from the mud that he was facedown in; the mud was thick and deep, and it felt like he couldn't breathe even when it only covered his face.

*BOOM*

Another explosion detonated next to Jaden. Luckily it seemed the explosion passed over him but it still managed to knock the wind out of him. Struggling to breathe he pushed himself to his feet as he tried to find his lightsaber that had been knocked out of his hand when he fell.

"AHH!!!" Jaden shouted in pain as a blaster bolt went straight into his shoulder sending him to the ground. Blaster fire kept coming his way as he tried to push himself behind cover; his mind was wracked with fear and pain, he was also suffering from a mild concussion that had formed from the multiple explosions he'd taken. This was nothing like the simulations he'd faced, while he had dealt with the pain of being shot there it didn't hurt like this; there was no fear that he might die at any moment, only fail. Except in this battlefield failing meant the same thing as dying.

"Kill the filthy Jedi!"

Jaden heard soldiers getting closer to his position and he scrambled around looking for his lightsaber in the mud. He cursed at himself for leaving the other lightsaber in the ship—believing he wouldn't have a use for two. It was too late the first soldier came around the natural rock formation that Jaden was hiding behind with his rifle pointed at him.

Jaden pushed off his feet and lunged at the man tackling him into the boulder behind him. The soldier grunted as his back hit the wall but he was otherwise undamaged; Jaden grabbed his pistol and shot him in the gut multiple times before pointing his blaster at the next soldier that had emerged and shooting him in the head.

What he didn't expect however was the next soldier that came after him to be a Nimbus Commando with rocket skates. He glided over the mud easily and jumped over the soldier that had just been shot; Jaden shot at the Commando multiple times but each shot missed. The commandos however didn't and Jaden once again yelled in pain as his weapon was shot from his hand and another was sent into his hip.

Feeling angry Jaden reached out with the force and crushed the rocket skates that the commando wore on his feet. The commando managed to roll in the mud as the skates stopped working; he tried to shoot Jaden but Jaden ripped the gun out of his hand.

Jaden was intent on snapping the man's neck with the force, damn the consequences. But he had to let go of his grasp and dodge backwards as another soldier emerged, he lunged at him and slammed his force-empowered fists into the Jabiimi's stomach. He then grabbed his gun lifted it to the soldier's chin and pulled the trigger making a hole in the top of his head.

He then grabbed the gun and went to finish off the commando but was kicked back into the wall by him as he used the distraction as an opportunity to get closer. Jaden growled out as he felt his anger overflow "Enough!" He shouted as he grabbed the commando with the force. Blood sprayed all across Jaden and the ground as the commando was crushed with the force.

Jaden found that he felt no remorse for the act despite how brutal it was. Satele had warned him that killing while using the Dark side would change him for the worse, but at the moment he didn't have a choice; all the pain and fear he was feeling was gone and it became power. Seeing a glint in the mud Jaden reached out and pulled his lightsaber back into his grasp and ignited it.

The next soldier that came across Jaden barely saw the blade before he found himself without a head. Jaden enhanced with even more power than before cut his way through the soldiers that had started to encroach on his position; grabbing one of them with force he dragged him over before impaling him on his lightsaber. Deflecting bolts left and right the Jabiimi started to lose morale, especially when they saw Jaden explode someone's head using the force. Through his massacre, Jaden had inadvertently gotten closer to the enemy forward base which was something he hadn't realised.

*BOOM*

*BOOM*

*BOOM*

Three escape pods had been rolled down the hill and the combined explosion utterly decimated the enemy camp. Jaden was thrown back by the explosion; the number of explosions he'd taken today had finally taken its toll and he found that he couldn't stop himself from passing out, and he drifted into unconsciousness.

(AN: First battle is over, and it's a victoryyy. Tbh I don't think the plan that Jaden used was too bad, I mean in theory anyway. Jaden has also given into the dark side a bit, he is scared of dying and scared of the battlefield so it's not that unexpected. He is only 15 tbf. Anyway hope you enjoyed the chapter.)

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