The Weaving Force: Chapter 129 (Patreon)

Chapter 129

Taylor

I could feel the whole world come alive around me.

Yavin teemed with insect life, and the millenia long evolution cycle, touched by the Dark Side, had done nothing to lower the various species' intrinsic predatory, or even malicious instincts. 

I left a screening layer of benign insects at the edge of my range, letting the droids think they were safe there, using it to listen to incoming orders where I could, or keep an eye on advancing heavy weapons or armor so I could prepare a counter with a more effective swarm closer in.

Viper Wasps emerged from their homes in the thickened canopies and vines to sting and claw at droid infantry, the acidity in their blood just high enough to crack delicate sensors and melt joints where careless droids crushed them in their movements. 

Tanc Mites formed living walls of rocky chitin, providing hard cover against blasters, flame throwers, even B-2 wrist rockets, letting the Clones of the 501rst return fire in safety. And when the Clones fell back or retreated, the mites broke apart the cover that had helped the clones. The battlefield changing moment to moment letting the droids march through hails of blaster fire open ground kill zones. . 

Jumping spiders the size of speeder bikes lunged from the shadows, their purple color blending almost seamlessly in the night. They tore into high priority targets like advancing Droideka and Jedi Hunters with scything talons, never even detected by droid sensors until it was too late.

Garnants burrowed under ground,  their echolocation giving me a perfect view of where the enemy was at all times around me.

I had them dig, honeycombing tunnels into the earth, and mere minutes later, they’d dug pits where heavy tanks fell into as the ground collapsed under their weight and whole columns of infantry were stalled as they tried to find their way around.

Insect birds swarmed the black night above us five or six of them leaping onto vulture droids and Hyena bombers to tear them out of the sky before they ever got close to the temple.

And lastly, the Pyrhanna beetle, the last line of defense, a rainbow of teeth and blades, strong enough to rip through metal with enough numbers, even the well armored B-2’s could barely survive anything more than a handful of seconds before they were reduced to nothing but their metal frames and thousands of steel slivers in the wind. 

The bombers started letting loose their payloads in the forests, destroying whole swathes of my swarm even as a million more took their places. The Vulture droids rose high, high into the sky, beyond my range to try and shoot down the gunships and transports as they broke atmosphere.

And still the droids marched on, heedless.

It didn’t take long to figure out why

‘They want to keep me here’

A little under half of the deployed 501rst had been extracted by now, but that still left half to go, and I didn’t like playing the enemy’s game and being stuck here while they advanced whatever objectives they had elsewhere.

And then, I felt my swarm begin to die. 

It started from the north, and at first, I just assumed that it was another collection of cluster bombs that had fallen at the edge of my range.

But as bugs rushed in to seal the proverbial breach, another wave of them died. The underground Garmants felt their sensitive hides almost tingle in my mind, a rhythmic pulsing brushing across their frames from the world above.

It didn’t take me long to recognize what was happening.

I’d felt it before- a lifetime ago.

From Armsmaster.

A giant electric discharge generator, zapping every bug to death around it. 

“Troopers!” I barked, a collection of the 501rst, a little over a hundred held in ‘reserve’ snapped their gazes towards me, their commander saluting sharply. 

“Yes, General?”

“With me. North side, there will be a push, bring heavy weaponry.”

“Yes ma’am. You heard the General, grab those rockets!”

I started to move, Guelzo silently following. I trusted the clones of the 501rst to follow as soon as they grabbed their weapons.

Soon another pulse came and eliminated a whole chunk of my swarm outright.

I pulled the others back, into the temple itself. There was no point in losing more of them until these things were dealt with. 

Another pulse, this time I only felt the tingles through the underground worms and Garmants. Using that, I began to make a mental map, triangulating the very edge of the deadly effect with the image I was getting to determine where exactly it was emanating from.

Just as soon as I arrived and the Clones fanned out to reinforce the defenses the droid army poured through the breach. B-1’s, B-2’s, Droidekas and Jedi Hunters surged out of the trees in a tide of metal and blaster fire.

The 501rst answered back, and I made the Tanc Mites converge, like quick shuffling crabs, forming living bulwarks that the men took cover behind, cover that moved dynamically with them as I enabled the troops to get better angles, or even shielded them from threats they didn’t see.

Another pulse, and this time, my own flesh and blood eyes caught the blue flash of electrical discharge through the trees.

There it was. 

More of my swarm began to die in other sectors, around the temple. Three, no, Fou-, No, seven other points.

Above, the insect-birds didn’t die, but the shock of their pain made my eyes snap upwards to see faintly blue glowing orbs, the size of trucks darting through the blackened sky, pulsing with electric thrums of lightning discharge.

I didn’t need ‘eyes’ to see the Vultures and Hyena’s rushing in now.

I pressed my fingers to my earpiece, opening a general channel. “501rst, this is General Hebert. Take cover inside the temple, enemy attack waves incoming from all directions!”

I drew my lightsaber, fingers tightening over the curved hilt,a heat shimmer forming around me.

I’d been getting tired of playing passive anyway.

—

OOM-13

“Avance!”

OOM13 voiced the order, but also delivered it through wireless communication systems to all units in proximity, feeling the pings of confirmation from both subordinate and peer droid models. Once again, the droid lines began to move, lock step clanks and whirs of metal feet on grass, earth, rock and trees. Blaster fire increased in decibel and frequency of shots at the temple grounds ahead. Vulture and Hyena air support were confirming a full attack run on the temple itself.

His command tank lurched forward, and OOM-13 did his best to scan the ground for any pits or hazards that might open up as they had for several peer units already, but he saw none.

They pushed through, trees falling over as the tank advanced, sheer weight pushing the wooden obstacles down. From the corner of his vision he spotted Jedi Hunter droids rushing through the shadows of the dark forest. There was one Jedi target ahead of them according to his files, which explained their presence.

The temple just began to come into view through the thick canopy, he could see the white of clone armor. “Prepare to engage!” He called to his units, answering affirmative pings returning through the wireless channels.

Then, the world infront of him was fire.

It was a wall of fire, twenty meters high, it devoured the forest, and swept forward like a blanket of living flame.

It was… infernal.

Droids quite literally melted where they stood, the intense heat sending warning flares through his own sensors, optical units struggling to adjust to the sudden brightness.

The Hovertank glowed red hot along its underside, the barrel beginning to glow red as though they were suddenly on a volcano planet. Heat distortions turning the air infront of him into wavy liquid.

It was as though the whole of the world would be reduced to smoldering ashes.

He saw a flash of something through the brilliance and his optical units adjusted just in time to see a Jedi hunter droid beheaded, the other rushing to escape before it was yanked back, impaled through the chest by a gold lightsaber blade.

OOM-13 didn’t hesitate, uplinking his optics to the tank crew beneath him as he helped triangulate a lightning fast lock-on over the walking wraith that marched through the towering wall of flames. “Fire!”

The blast rocked the tank backward, the heavy laser cannon sending a blast cutting through the night that could rip through a bunker-

And it stopped dead in the air, meters from its target.

OOM-13’s processors halted, certain there was an error in his optic sensor array, running a diagnostic to clear up the flaw-

By the time his sensors were rebooted 0.84 seconds later, the last thing he would see was the heavy laser blast careening back towards him. 

—

Commander Cody:

“Cover the General!” He barked out his order, pulling free his pistol to fire into the backs of the Sith that sought to swarm their commander. One of them, a human male turned to face them, his red lightsaber flashing deflecting bolts back at their senders or into the air. Cody saw him thrust his hand forward and knew enough about Force manipulation to hit the dirt and take cover as two of his brothers were sent flying back with screams of surprise.

The men reformed their firing lines and Cody himself moved to get back up, to keep shooting, only for a flash of red at his side and a cry of pain to warn him on the encroaching danger.

Droids. rolling left he pointed his gun and fired at the Jedi Hunter droid, blue energy bolts bouncing off its cortosis plating like water on glass.

Droideka’s, B-1’s and B-2’s had fully deployed into their lines and the whole column of Clones disintegrated into individual, desperate flights as his brothers scrambled to try and get into cover while the metal assassin advanced on Cody, swinging both blades.

Cody didn’t have Beskar, he didn’t have some magical metal to save him.

So with a kick born of pure desperation he lashed out as hard as he could, his boot driving into the metal monstrosity’s ankle and either because of the cold wet ground, bad footing or just good luck the thing slipped, stumbling as his foot slid backwards on the soft earth of the Yavin Jungle.

It gave Cody enough time to fire the gun with his right hand until the barrel glowed, right into the Monster’s face while his other hand fumbled until it finally picked up a large dried stick.

Just as the thing got its bearings  Cody swung.

Wood splinters exploded from the side of the droid’s face, the stick cracking and breaking apart as sheer kinetic force knocked the droid onto its side as the pistol refused to fire, threatening to over heat as Cody lunged. One hand grabbing hold of one wrist, a foot stomping down on the other arm as he used the pistol to try and beat the metal bastard to death with.

Try being the operative word. Cortosis might have been much more malleable than durasteel, it was still a hunk of metal.

By the third strike, he’d only succeeded in cracking apart an optic sensor before the thing’s prehensile legs twisted in a way that would make a contortionist green with envy, clawed toes stabbing into Cody’s side before throwing him off with a scream and a sound of tearing flesh.

Cody felt pain sear through his whole right, stumbling and falling twice before he made it to his feet, the droid advancing on him once again; Then, suddenly, from above a green beam lanced straight through the dark, the Droid’s cortosis armor put up resistance for far longer than anything else Cody could think of before the composite beam carved through it, searing it in two as the LAAT gunship circled overhead.

The 212th’s Commander all but collapsed, the adrenaline unable to fully mask the pain of his side being torn open by raking claws as he felt the warm stickiness of his own blood seeping through his under armor.

He forced himself back to his feet, his legs shaking as they tried to hold up his weight. 

More droids pressed in around their lines, advancing even as more Clones fired down on them from emplacements along the temple grounds. He heard harried, frantic fallback commands, more red lightsabers intermingled through the gloom and dark, wether they were Hunter droids or more Sith that had shown up to join the fight he wasn’t sure. Cody made himself focus, made himself think beyond the panic and rapidly disintegrating discipline. General Kenobi wasn’t here to hold their hands, and the 212th was made of better stuff than this.

He found one Clone Comm trooper, his armor marked green, the young shiny was taking cover behind a barricade, returning fire  with his rifle rather than doing his job.

He marched over, blaster bolts both blue and red whizzing past his head every step sent a lance of pain through his side but Cody forced his body to stand straight, he didn’t have time to be injured right now.

Reaching the line of defending Clones he reached down, the shiny hadn’t even seen him yet, his vision to narrow and ears too deaf with this damn helmet. Cody prefered the old ones. 

His hand clamped down on the younger Clone’s shoulder and the little brother nearly leapt out of his skin, head swiveling around and finding him. “C-comander!?”

Cody knelt down next to him, the sudden tearing pain at his side nearly stealing the breath from his lungs. 

“”I need a report trooper!” He demanded. “How many ships are available for us right now.”

“I-I don’t know sir-”

Losing patience, Cody reached over, pulling up the boy’s wrist, brandishing the mounted comlink and all of its gadgetry therein. “Last I checked you and all others assigned to comm duty have direct links to the ships in orbit. Jamming hasn’t been set up yet so ask. I need to know how many Gunships we have on hand to get us out, if we have enough available air support for Close range fire support, if the ships in orbit can spare the power for artillery bombardment. Drop the blaster and do your part of the job!”

The young trooper, if he took any offense to the brusque tone, didn’t show it, instead he nodded. 

“Sir yes sir!”

As soon as the comms officer began trying to hail the negotiator, Cody immediately began panning his eyes around the battleground, searching for General Kenobi, or more specifically the singular blue of his lightsaber.

—

Karla:

She found, not for the first time, that following battles in space was always… difficult. Much moreso than ground warfare.

On the ground you could almost read the movements of an army, see the ebb and flow in real time. When a column of infantry was being pushed back they moved differently, than when they were surging. The feeling of danger in the force, always a sixth sense for all Jedi on the battlefield, grew more and more tense, more and more overwhelmed as the potential vectors of said danger increased around you.

But in space, all you had was a view port, and the desperate, frantic calls of pilots through the comms, the screams of men as they were shot down, the scramble and cacophony of coordinator clones trying to direct the various fighters in the middle of the crazed ‘melee’ of the mass dog fight. 

They glimmered off in the distance now, thruster engines, laser fire, shrieking missiles, blooming explosions. They were the stars in her sky, even as the ship shuddered beneath her feet with the thrum of turbo-laser fire, rail cannon and proton torpedo exchanges between the larger vessels of the fleets. 

She could see Master Anakin’s ship, its trail of blue thruster fire cutting through space like a comet, every pass had him shooting down howling bombers and fighters, but still, through sheer overwhelming numbers the Separatists kept drawing closer, the Clones continuously falling back in a fighting retreat to not allow the swarm free reign over the battleships themselves.

The Lucrehulk was damaged, the micro-jump had robbed it of its structural integrity and probably messed with its shields, because they were already down, either that or Grievous was just commanding the soulless automata to focus all power on their offensive batteries- because the massive vessel was firing from seemingly every barrel even as it listed to the side with a venting plasma core, the deluge of fire crashing into the shields of the ships of the line around it.

One of the comm stations to her left chimed, a priority of some sort-

The Clone had no issue telling her exactly what his sensor’s had caught. “General, I have visual on the Soulless One!”

The Holo screen bloomed over the main viewport, a drone camera following after the custom starfighter, tracking its location and proximity.

It was getting closer.

Karla didn’t need to overthink these next orders. “Send the coordinates to all fighters. If they have a shot, they’re ordered to take it. If he’s still in the void we can kill him right no-”

“I’ve got him”

Master Anakin’s voice bounced off the walls of the bridge and her eyes shot towards the viewport, desperately searching for the streak of blue fire that would be the trail of his starfighter.

She stepped closer to the window, almost willing her eyes to somehow see better, to try and find them in the glimmering motes of light before she did just that. 

They were close now, close enough that she could only just see the outlines of their ships, not just the trails of their afterburners.

They danced around each other, each one trying to catch out their opponent. But Master Anakin, even if Miss Taylor hated his piloting, was the best pilot in the galaxy. She would bet on him and double down on it, as Mr. Dennis would say.

The maneuvers were dizzying, and more than once when Master Anakin was about to get the better of him, a Tri fighter or vulture droid swooped in, forcing him to back off-

And still Grievous drew closer and closer.

Finally, as the Soulless One began to fly low to get under the screening fire of their point defense turrets, Master Anakin flew straight down, like a dagger plunging into an exposed skull, green fire illuminating the space between the ships.

Only for Grievous’ ship to stop almost dead in its tracks, turning in a way that would have broken necks, and liquefied the organs of the pilot through sheer inertia alone, completely altering his flight path and causing Master Skywalker to overshoot him as the Cyborg got behind him.

Karla felt her heart leap into her throat, many of the clones almost standing from their seats around her as others began to howl out orders to any interceptor or fighter available to rush to Master Anakin’s aid.

The two ships were flying almost close enough to be scraping along the hull of the Glory, giving her a clear view of their weaving forms before Grievous opened up with a full salvo.

That should have been the end of it, with Master Anakin’s ships dead to rights and dead in the proverbial water.

Only for him to dip the interceptor in a hard bank, the wing and S foils scraping off the hull like a hand grabbing a hand hold, the S foil snapping off, the shower of sparks tearing a gouge out of the ship and the wing itself sheared almost in half as the Starfighter’s forward momentum was translated into a 360 degree turn.

But Grievous shot right past him.

And Master Skywalker’s shots didn’t miss.

They bolts struck the backside of Grievous’ ship full on, the engines smoking. Grievous tried to dodge and weave but Master Anakin was not letting up and chased after him; making up for the lack of speed from his damaged starfighter with raw skill.

The ship was suddenly rocked, a barrage of fire from the Lucrehulk bombarding them with a blanket of fire that, though deflected off their shields, still made the ship shake and rumble.

A second barrage, and this time lights flickered, consoles short circuited- Her eyes trailed up, noting the massive hulk of a ship rushing forward, heedless of the focus fire from the other vessels in the fleet that tore it to pieces as it over extended and isolated itself. 

“Ma’am! Lucrehulk is focusing fire on us!”

Her eyes darted back down, the two starfighters still locked in a desperate dogfight as Grievous’ desperation no doubt ordered the Lucrehulk to do what it was doing to try and shake off Master Anakin.

The Soulless one tried another physics defying maneuver, but she saw when its stabilizers burst, an explosion of flame and black smoke before Master Skywalker let loose with another salvo catching the Souless one full on its left.

The fighter spun in an out of control dive and fell out of her sight, under the bridge control tower. But she felt the explosion at the base of the bridge tower, and more than that, Clone sensor operators and commsmen suddenly howled in a great, roaring cheer that she was almost sure could be heard from here to the planet down below.

The Souless one was down. 

But another bombardment rocked the ship- the full force of the three thousand meter Lucrehulk capital ship bearing down on them.

“Shield’s compromised!” One clone cried. 

Damnit. 

“Evasive maneuvers! Return fire!” Focus all forward batteries on that sh-!”

She stopped, a sudden, icy chill crawling down her spine as she realized something. A tickle at the back of her mind coming to full bloom at the forefront.

She hadn’t sensed Grievous die.

A second later, Master Anakin’s voice crackled and garbled through the comms.

“He’s not dead!”

There was a split second warning in the Force and she didn’t have time to scream, no time to shout an order, she simply turned and threw all of her power into a Telekenetic burst.

The Clone by the console was thrown clear across the room with a scream; and she prayed oh did she pray she didn’t break the man’s neck as he smashed into the bulkhead.

The emergency blast lever was pulled and the metal sheets slammed shut over the bridge and all of its windows milliseconds before four Lightsaber’s plunged into the port side windows, air already whistling through the molten metal where the sabers were carving through.

‘Alert! Bridge structural integrity compromised-

“EVACUATE THE BRIDGE!” Iskt roared- the clones were fast on the uptake, seatbelts coming undone and men scrambling for the doors, grabbing weapons as they went. Iskt ran towards the blast doors, waiting for her beside it and lunging forward to grab her hand and pull a second before the metal gave and the atmosphere began to vent.

Warning klaxons blared around them, air rushed past her so fast it was hard to breathe, men grabbed hold of whatever they could to keep themselves from being sucked into hard vacuum, a few failed, their screams lost in the airless nothing beyond the door. 

Karla turned her head, seeing Grievous pull himself through the hole with claws and talons digging into solid durasteel.

Iskt finally pulled her through, the great, massive blast doors slamming shut right behind her, the rush of air dying away, and she barely managed to suck down a single breath before adeafening slam echoed through the hall from the other side of the door. Four points beginning to glow cherry red on this end. 

She reached into her pocket, pulling free her communicator and linking it to a ship wide broadcast. 

“To all members of the Glory crew- boarding defense parties needed on the bridge immediately! All other crewmen, man your stations but be prepared to evacuate on my order! General Grievous has boarded the ship!”

—

Anakin

Red warning lights flashed and alarms blared in his cockpit, the ship warning him in no uncertain terms that it had lost its wing and thus his next priority should be to immediately find a repair bay, any repair bay.

R2 blooped and chirped worriedly, noticing that Anakin was rerouting auxiliary power. 

“I know R2-” He grunted, slipping on his own oxygen mask. “I know.”

He pitched the ship upwards, the overstressed engines trying to maintain equilibrium without his right hand wing or S foil as he followed after Grievous.

By the time he made it to the bridge, the hole was already carved, and the cyborg monster was working on ripping through the blast door. 

Luckily, there was no sound in the airless void, so the Cyborg didn’t notice the otherwise deafening sound of the ship’s engine.

What he did notice was Anakin opening up with fully automated fire into his exposed back.

Green energy flashed and fire burst across the whole viewport, Anakin held his finger down on the trigger the turbo laser barrels glowing white hot as fire filled up his whole viewport, dying almost as soon as they were born in the airless void.

Then, a clawed hand punched through his front viewport, nearly crushing his skull if he hadn’t jerked to the side at the last second. Atmosphere rushed out of the cockpit, pulling him forward even as his on board computer tightened the seatbelts to a painful degree across his torso and shoulders, keeping him fastened into the seat. 

Grievous’ skeletal features loomed out of the fire, hollow eyes glowing yellow, and he could almost feel the monster’s leering snarl as his clawed hand reached for Anakin’s face, taloned feet digging into the metal of his ships front plates for purchase, sabers  in his other hand raised high ready to bring them down.

Anakin cut off the engine, lurching the ship down, making the cyborg lose his balance as he angled the starship away from the bridge before he punched the eject button.

He shot out of the cockpit like a cannonball, R2 launched right behind him. 

With a nudge of the controls with the Force the engines suddenly burst back into life, afterburners lighting up and rushing the ship forward.

Grievous slipped with the sudden momentum, his leg catching between the starfighter’s fork-like front, the vessel spearing him and pushing him down with it.

The starfighter crashed into the hull, Grievous still on it, another explosion of fire and plasma blooming like a high yield thermal grenade, even in the void.

The plasma fire burned for whole seconds at a time blue and green, white and red

For a brief window, there was no movement and Anakin wondered if maybe he’d at least damaged the bastard.

But no. Grievous stood back up, blue fire guttering over his body as his shoulders shook with laughter.

Anakin, cursed, feeling R2 latch onto his escape seat with a magnetic clamp, his little friend tugging him away

The void was cold, and the emergency systems could only sustain him for a few minutes.

He considered ordering R2 to drag him towards the nearest Hangar bay of the Glory, but he knew he couldn’t afford to. He needed to direct the battle and get Obi-Wan and the others off that moon, something that was now going to be much much more difficult with one of their Venators effectively crippled.

And he couldn’t do that while fighting Grievous.

He’d simply have to trust that Karla and Iskt could handle themselves for at least a little while.

“This is General Skywalker, need immediate pickup by any available unit, hone in on my signal!”

—

Obi-Wan

His lightsaber crackled against Quarmall’s saberstaff, the blades sparking brightly as Obi-Wan manipulated both to intercept the man he’d once known as Naaran, all three sabers snapping and flashing as they came together before Obi-Wan levitated a stone from the ground, using it as a spring board to leap over both men, avoiding the third swipe from knight Nolor behind him.

He’d known these men if only by reputation before, seeing them now, they seemed almost unrecognizable.

He landed on his feet, almost dancing out of reach with deft footwork that could have only been taught by the late Dooku’s precise tutelage, keeping perfectly balanced even on the rough, uneven ground. 

His blade was pointed towards them, a barely there smile tugging at his lip that was only partly bravado. 

“I’m sorry if you thought you’d have an easy target because I’m not Hebert or Dallon. He brought his lightsaber up in a flourish. “But I’m afraid none of you are quite up to par.”

Master Quarmall snarled, the abyssnian’s Force presence blackening with rage. As a Jedi Master, and an Abyssian to boot, he was the strongest of the three, making him angry made him more powerful in the Force, but blunted his skills with the lightsaber. He’d take the tradeoff.

They charged again, and Obi-Wan entered the dance of blades, slipping seamlessly between Soresu and Makashi as he twirled and spun between his enemies, aware at all times of where each of them were as they tried to surround him in the chaotic melee.

But hey were too many, and too many sabers to boot. With Naaran wielding two, and Quarmall a saber staff, they were more getting in eachother’s way than aiding one another.

He made sure to keep two between himself and the third as much as possible, single saber a flash of blue across the darkness as he parried, deflected and redirected strike after strike after strike, keeping them away from the landing zone itself and retreating along the periphery of his own two twelfth as they continually fell back, rushing to board the evac shuttles and gunships. 

Knight Nolor, the youngest of them, grew frustrated, rushing forward in a brazen attack, forgetting all defense in his anger.

It was the only opening Obi-Wan needed.

Nolor swung his saber down in a powerful overhead strike, as if trying to Brute force Obi-wan’s defense and guard.

Only, Obi-Wan wasn’t there.

The Jedi Council member stepped forward and to the right, his lightsaber slipping into his left hand and rising up just as Nolor’s arms came down.

It probably took the younger man a second to even recognize his arms were missing from the elbow down.

He stumbled, likely feeling the vertigo as a sudden chunk of blood was now missing from his body, the shock beginning to hit as his legs lost strength and his knees hit the floor.

The other two paused, hesitating as Obi-Wan flourished his saber one more time before asuimg a ready stance.  “Perhaps you three should have attended my lessons on Kashyyyk” He goaded.

“It likely wouldn’t have done much good.”

Obi-Wan stiffened, eyes darting to his right, even looking straight at her he could barely sense her.

But what was she doing here?

“Komari.” Master Quarmall growled. “He’s alone, the 212th are retreating, we’ll never get a better chance to kill him.

“Oh I agree.” He quipped back, eyes narrowing as he saw the Clone head the woman tossed aside as she drew closer. A Mandalorian walked behind her, and one who had a very dangerous looking dissintegration rifle. “If you don’t capitalize on this golden opportunity I simply can’t see myself ever falling into such a position again. Can you imagine the things the other Council members will say?”

He couldn’t read her expression behind her mask, her eyes trailing towards the downed Nolor.

With a flick of the wrist, the young man’s head was suddenly, and violently twisted almost completely around!

Quarmall hissed, and Naaran backed away.

Obi-Wan felt his stomach turn. “He was defenseless.” He protested.

“This is what happens to people who fail Sidious.” She said if she was answering him or warning the fallen Jedi, sending a message or something else altogether he wasn’t sure. Right now he wasn’t sure about a lot of things.

But still, as he looked at the woman, like on Geonosis, he found no malice there, indeed her eyes darted twice to the side, towards Master Quarmall… Target him first?

Looking at her Mandalorian ally… his rifle was held… loosely… but looking close it was pointed at Naaran’s back.

The Councilman prayed he wasn’t about to fall for an elaborate trap.

Before he could capitalize on his hunch however- shots rained down from above.

Obi-Wan backpedaled, a hail of blasterbolts descending in a rapid fire cascade that caught him off guard, two Mandalorians firing away with twin blasters and a ful auto rifle before they landed next to Quarmall and Naaran.

Quarmall and Naaran charged forward, looking to capitalize on sheer, raw numbers.

Then the back of Quarmall’s head exploded.

Obi-Wan almost froze in surprise, his brain uncomprehending as he saw the former Master’s Saberstaff ripped out of his dying hands and falling into the Mandalorian warriors.

The Mandalorian surged on wings of fire, rushing straight towards him, the other drawing a second saberstaff and bearing down on the equally surprised Komari.

There was a crash, blade striking blade, Obi-Wan was pushed back, nearly losing his footing before he shoved the charging Mandalorian to the side, the Jetpack making him overshoot before the man all but broke the laws of biomechanics and momentum as he dug in his heel, still not turning off the Jetpack in order to turn, a full 180 degrees in an eyeblink, nearly bisecting Obi-Wan who leapt into the air to avoid the swing.

It was there, hovering in the air where time seemed to slow, the realization came to him.

Maul?

There was a shove, a Telekenetic fist straight to Obi-Wan’s whole body as the false Mandalorian with pure hate and rage sent him flying clear across the battleground to have him crash into the side of a landing gunship , his body rocking the vessel sideways and sending men falling out of its still open troop bay.

Everything sang with pain, but warning howls in the Force told him he couldn’t stop, couldn’t pause, he forced himself to move, barely managing to get to a single knee before the saber came crashing down on him, barely intercepted by his own.

He couldn’t stop the kick though.

The metal talon raked across his face, Obi-Wan would have screamed if he had any air to do so as a second kick drove into his chest, throwing him down, into the mud.

The Clones on the gunship opened fire, likely not fully understanding but it was enough to know their General needed help. Maul deflected with his saber, or shrugged it off with beskar, tossing a thermal detonator into the troop bay that sent men scrambling, but- too late. It exploded, tearing men and ship apart as Obi-Wan felt his ears ring, the concussive force knocking what little air he had in his lungs out once again as he gasped and tried to regain some semblance of coherence.

Maul lunged forward-

Only for the red blade to stop mid swing, intercepted by a Beskar clad body, crossed forearms holding it back, before a bright yellow energy lance tore across the night to rip at Maul’s chestplate, sending him staggering back, away from Obi-Wan

Three more shots followed, but these, the snarling Zabrak dodged and weaved around. 

“We catch you fuckers at a bad time?”

Obi-Wan barely recognized Cid’s voice, from Taylor’s squad, barely had the mind to even ask what the hell they were doing here as, still struggling to get air back into his lungs he rolled to his side, head still swimming.

It occurred to him, distantly, he’d very nearly died.

The hatred smashed into him next, overflowing, overwhelming, it had been hidden- but now Maul let it loose.

KENOBI!

The scream was a distant howl in the Force itself, an echoing hatred that would seemingly endure til the end of the Force itself as Maul stared at him.

He looked back, that T shaped, Mandalorian visor hid those yellow and red eyes, but Kenobi could feel them all the same.

“Brother!” The other false Mandalorian roared, tossing thermal detonators as he leapt away on a roaring jetpack. “We must go! Remember our objective!”

Maul seemingly came back to himself, stepping away before he turned and sprinted with all the speed he could put into those mechanical legs.

Whatever fatigue gripped him, whatever pain or bleeding or damage he’d suffered, it evaporated in that instant as Obi-Wan surged to his feet, picking up his lightsaber from the mud strewn ground and chasing after the man.

He didn’t even notice as Noble team charged headlong, heedless towards Komari.(X)(X)(X)

So, NGL, this chapter was kind of ready on Wednesday, but it was delayed because even though I had fun with it in a general sense, something about it didn't feel quite right, like it was missing something to have it actually be good but I genuinely couldn't put my finger on it.If any of you get that same feeling and can identify it please let me know, because like I said, I had fun, but something about it feels like its not as good as it could be.Anywho, next chapter will be the conclusion of the battle of Yavinhope you've all enjoyed so far in spite of my own misgivings and I'll catch you all next week.Remember always we have a discord where you can chat with me or other fans of the work here: https://discord.gg/DA5ecGvcAnd we have a TV tropes page that can always use more love here:https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Fanfic/TheWeavingForceAlso, announcement for our $3.00 and up members, there's been an artwork piece that was commissioned a while ago, but had some difficulties getting off the ground (first artist had an emergency, returned the money but couldn't finish project, when it was time to commission second artist I got sick and missed the commission date) but everything is underway now and so in a few more weeks we should be getting fresh new artwork :)