Yes Master! Jorin called out, leaping into the air.. only to fall short. Jorin gathered himself and leaped again, this time landing next to the other Droideka. He could feel the heat radiating from the droid as in side stepped to bring it's canons to bare. Jorin swung his sabers in a one-two, one-two downward arc as he twisted his body in a spin, breaching the shield. His lightsaber severing cables and scaring the armor plate, his shoto bashing the droids head, as sparks flew through the air. Getting better... need more practice!

Varactyl squad rushes forwards behind the Jedi, firing at the supers. They absorb a lot of fire, but only two go down. Camouflage sees his men struggling and swears and he tries to heave himself into the turret while under fire.

The two rolling droidekas make straight for Mireska and Jorin, attempting to ram into them, but the Jedi dive out of the way at the last moment and the droidekas roll past. The others take advantage of the separation to open fire on the Jedi. Jorin keeps his dive going, turning into a low sprint and dodging the fire from the droideka he damaged, but Mireska is left to batter away the withering hail of fire from the one she failed to damage.

The super battle droids turn towards Varactyl squad as they round the corner firing, returning fire with a withering hail of their own. Havoc is hit several times and twice in the right shoulder, sending him to the ground. Fury yells "Man down! Man down!" and starts trying to pull Havoc back into cover when a bolt takes him in the chest. He grits his teeth and whimpers against the pain, his vision starting to haze as his body fights to cope with the injury. Thank the Force for this armor...

Camouflage sees Havoc go down and calls over comms to his men, "Hold on! Havoc, hang on . I've almost got the tank, we'll clear them out." He grits his teeth and heaves himself up, jumping into the turret next to the skeletal corpse of the tactical droid. He simultaneously fires at the droids in the tank below with one blaster while firing into the line of super battle droids with the other, joining his fire to that of Varactyl squad. He quickly clears out the tank, and the clones drop four of the super battle droids, but one of the ARC trooper's blasters runs dry on ammo and he drops it beside him in the turret, glad he's got backup weapons.

Pull yourself together, woman!

Mireska brushed the sweat from her face and determinedly approached the first droideka again. This time she scored a minor hit on it, scoring its chassis slightly with her emerald-hued lightsabre.

Sithspit, they've upgraded them! I'll be more effective just staying beside the clones, intercepting attacks on them and healing them.

Jorin lets out a yell and moves back to his target, battering the droideka, until an opening in it's defenses exposes one of it's legs. Jorin focuses and swings his blade through the joint, severing the limb. The Droideka wavers, trying to keep it's balance and back away, but looses to gravity as it falls to the ground.

Varactyl squad keeps focusing their fire on the advancing B2s, dropping a couple more. As he brings the turret to bear, Camouflage yells over comms, "Take cover! Get behind the tank!"

Anakkona barks orders to the rest of the squad and they sprint across the rest of the street trying to make it to cover, Fury and Hawk carrying Havoc with them. They duck behind the AAT's skirt, laying low and returning fire. Fury leans against the back of the tank, trying to catch his breath as spots swim before his eyes and he struggles to maintain consciousness. "Havoc, Havoc, stay w-, st- stay with me. Havoc, vod..."

The droideka tries to lunge back at Jorin, but the Padawan jumps out of the way. The other two droideka roll past, rolling open and deploying their shields. The droid engaged with Mireska stops down on her foot as it tries to back away, causing her to wince and yelp in pain.

Behind the tank, Varactyl squad is pinned down by the volume of fire from the super battle droids. Fury takes one last glance at his fallen brother, then ducks around the edge of the tank to fire at the droid lines. After a he squeezes off a couple shots, another bolt takes him squarely in the chest and throws him back, the blaster skittering out of his hand and across the pavement. Hawk takes a quick distracted glance, "No! Fury!" and takes a hit himself, throwing him to the ground behind the tank. Ghost takes up Hawk's position as Anakkona checks the bodies, "Nothing we can do for Fury, but Hawk is alive. Keep firing! "

Camouflage feels a ball of anger building in his chest at the plight of his men, and he fights to choke it down and stay in control. He drops into the turret and begins rotating the gun...

Giving up the idea of taking down the droideka herself, Mireska drew on her frustrated anger to leap towards Varactyl squad.

At least there I can do something useful ... like intercept attacks on them and maybe heal them.

When she saw Fury's fallen figure, she reached out in an attempt to resuscitate him - but all that she could grasp in the Force were the cold, swirling tendrils of the Dark Side ... and they were too weak for her purposes.

Breathing deeply in an attempt to calm her jangling nerves, she readied her lightsabre again.

Look away from the Dark Side, and protect those under your care instead of seeking battle glory.

Camouflage pulls the trigger and the laser cannon responds, blasting the first two ranks of the B2s to bits. While the cannon recharges, he glances around the turret, finding the button for the repulsor tow. He quickly smacks it with his gauntleted fist and the tether tying the shield generator to the tank shuts down. "Squad, pull back. Take cover behind the shield generator." His voice clips over into his all-business tone as he shuts off all emotion, focusing on the current situation.

Jorin is initially stunned as Mireska lept into the air towards Camouflage and his men. Now, not simply focused on the enemy in front of him, he notices the bodies on the ground, the cries of the injured..

no....

Mireska is rushing to the side of the injured, the Force is awash in the effort to heal them....

Jorin turns his attention to the Droidekas, his open hand, palm up raises into the air..

No. Jorin states calmly, plunging deep into his connection with the Force. The four Droidekas rise smoothly into the air, Jorin flexes his fingers like gripping a ball. The Droidekas respond, slamming into each other. Jorin extends his other hand and copies the motion. Lifting the shield generator as well..

No more die! Jorin yells, bringing his hands above his head, the droids and generator slam together, into a shower of sparks and discharge of energy. Jorin releases his hold, gasping from the effort. The tangled mass smashes into the ground, smoking.

As the shield collapse Jorin and Mireska hear the whine of a speeder bike. A bald grey skinned near human female jumps off it flips in a battle ready stance with a curved hilt light saber in her right hand with her left hand outstretched to Mireska, as the jedi healer jerks toward her through the air the new comer ignites her saber with a snap hiss. Mireska has time to register that the blade is red and bring her own emerald blade into to intercept the coming strike. The grey skinned female grins as she her red blade draws Mireska's around in multiple circles and flips it out of Mireska's hand and into the air to Mireska's surprise. She sees her assailant's hilt coming at her face and the world goes black and she feels herself falling. Mireska lands at the of her assailant who catches Mireska's saber in her left hand before it hits the ground.

She then speaks to Mireska loud enough for Jorin to hear her say

I felt a disturbance in the Force, I can only assume it was you, or maybe it was your apprentice since you didn't put up much of a fight.

She turns to Jorin and says come youngling let's see if you can do better than your master.

Seeing the shield come down Ker'see adjusts the grip on the sniper rifle. "Get ready troopers, it's about to get hot for us..."

With the foul Sith in her sights Ker'see takes a moment and breaths, willing her shot with the force. She pulls the trigger the rifle having a little more recoil than expected but the shot looks true and it soars across the battlefield. Ventress attempts to get a blade to reflect and while some of the damage is mitigated the sheer force of the sniper rifle was more than the lightsaber could handle and the blast managed to knock the sabers out of her hands and damages her ...

Assaj Ventress senses the bolt coming and gets both her own saber and Mireska"s in place to redirect the Crimson bolt at Jorin. However, the sniper bolt's impact was enough to knock her own saber out of her hand and drive Mireska's back to graze Ventress' left arm, she grits her teeth and manages to hang onto the blade. She then gestures at her saber and calls it back to her hand. Meanwhile Cammo's use of the tank's main gun on the b2's phalanx succeeded in getting their attention, ther respond by concentrating their fire on Cammo striking him repeatedly.

Their fallback point creatively relocated , the remaining members of Varactyl squad make a mad scramble away from the new assailant, firing at the advancing B2s as they come on and managing to drop several of them.

The hit to Camouflage's torso wasn't severe, having lost most of its energy after deflecting off the edge of the turret. It still hurt though, smacking into his armor and leaving a minor burn on the skin beneath the bodyglove. He quickly examines the current state of the fight: General Tanohdi is down, the kid is outmatched, half my squad is down, the supers, while depleted, are still coming, and there's a darjetti assassin on the loose. That sniper fire must be coming from Ker'see, which is good. He frantically tries to calculate a way out of this situation, not sure if there's a way to escape and save any lives, but glad that they've at least accomplished their objective. I knew there would be a mission I didn't come back from, I'd just hoped it wouldn't be so soon. Can't leave the Jedi, have to stay and fight.

Well aware of the danger posed by the tank's main gun, Ventress used the force to yank Cammo from the turret and hurled him into Jorin, after the impact Jorin didn't move so Ventress retrieved his sabers Telekinetically, ordered the b2's to finish of the clones and fallen jedi while she went after the sniper. She ran over to her speeder bike jumped on and sped of in the direction of Ker'see's sniper nest.

The events seemed to come all at once; a mysterious woman arrives, activates red lightsabers and incapacitates Master Mireska with ease.. He remembers facing her, twisting his wrists, turning his blades and prepares to defend himself, he thought of a possible tactic as a blaster bolt slammed into the woman's sabers. Jorin instinctively flinched, attempting to block but the bolts energy overwhelmed the woman... Jorin was just about to share his plan with Camouflage, when he watched the Lieutenant fly through the air at him.

And it's true..... time slowed, it felt as if he had enough time to straighten and watch the poor man hurtle towards him and think Seriously? this is how we are going to die? not from droids, but 'death by Clone Trooper'? The concept was so impossible, that it was.. funny.

The last thing Jorin remembered, just before the impact, was Laughing.

Before he's even finished tumbling, Camouflage bounces to his feet and checks on the kid. Out cold. Fierfek. Come on, wake up! He hurriedly fumbles for a stimpack from his belt and jabs it into the kid's shoulder, just under the plate. As he starts to come around, Camouflage slaps him across the face to hurry the process along. "KID! WAKE UP! Check on the General, I've got to hold off the clankers. GO!" He drops the other stim in Jorin's lap and dashes across the street, ducking and weaving to dodge fire from the supers.

The remaining members of Varactyl squad run back towards the tank, taking up positions behind the skirt and firing at the oncoming super battle droids. Camouflage calls over comms, "Droid poppers! Twenty meters." Anakkona nods, "Copy. You heard him, move it!" The clones each draw a droid popper, ducking out from behind the skirt just long enough to send each grenade rolling down the street, as close to the designated position as they can manage. As he drops into the turret, Camouflage checks his HUD, confirming that his men transferred the detonation command to him.

Jorin picks himself up and fights off the disorientation, quickly taking in his surroundings. A bolt whizzes just past his head and he ducks out of the way, finally processing what the ARC said. He uses the Force to enhance his speed, allowing him to dash across the street before the droids can even get a bead on him. He grabs Mireska under the shoulders and hastily backpedals, dragging to the relative safety of the rear of the tank before injecting her with the stimpack. "Master, wake up. The assassin is gone, we have to get out of here!"

Anakkona doesn't even look over his shoulder, but yells to the Jedi, "Havoc and Hawk are still alive. Can you get them mobile? The Lieutenant is holding off the clankers, but we're running out of time."

They hear the distinctive sound of the AAT's projectiles chambering, then firing, followed by a loud detonation as it wipes out a dozen droids. The clones feel a sense of grim satisfaction, but don't respond vocally. Guess the Lieutenant got tired of the turret... Ghost thinks to himself.

When the supers got close enough, Camouflage triggered the droid poppers and wiped out the two front rows of the droid lines, but it wasn't enough. They were still coming. So he climbed down into the main body of the tank, hopping into the port gunner's seat and primed the anti-personnel projectiles.

Mireska uses the Force to dispel her disorientation, then looks over the injured clones. Havoc is very far gone. It'll be a miracle if she can get him moving under his own power, and he'll certainly never use his arm again, but he just might survive. She turns to Hawk, and sees that he's in much better shape. He's just barely conscious, moving slightly and trying to speak. She bends down over him, using the Force to ease his pain and close the wound. He gasps, his chest heaving as he begins breathing more easily. Camouflage opens up on the B2s with the AAT's port repeating blaster, the rapid-fire anti-infantry blaster proving its effectiveness and throwing chunks of red-hot shrapnel in the air as it sends battle droid after battle droid to an explosive end. Camouflage makes a mental note to never stand in front of one of the things if he can avoid it.

Mireska calls to Anakkona, "I can't get Havoc up, we'll have to carry him." "Understood ma'am. I-" Jorin cuts him off, " I'll take Havoc, Anakkona. You just focus on holding off the droids." He carefully pulls the injured trooper up into a fireman's carry, hunching down behind the tank. Silent to the outside world, Anakkona sighs and says, "[Thanks, commander.]" He then glances at Fury's body, "[Lieutenant, permission to bring Fury's body back?]" Camouflage sighs, "[Granted. We're not leaving a vod behind. The rest of you cover us.]" Anakkona clips the deece to his belt and lifts Fury's body onto his shoulders, "We're ready, Lieutenant."

Camouflage shifts over again, moving into the driver's seat so he can move their cover along with them. On cue, they all start moving together, shifting the tank over to the side street where they first came up and moving until it backs right up to the manhole. They move down as quickly as they can, lowering the wounded Havoc through the gap, then Fury. Camouflage scrambles up into the turret, popping the hatch and leaping out, then tumbling down onto the street under fire from the approaching droids. He hustles down the ladder behind the others, pulling the cover back over top. "Ghost! Get us out of here. MOVE! " Ghost moves down the tunnel as quickly as he can, paving the way for the others to follow. Camouflage stays behind just long enough to be sure the clankers aren't following, then hurries to catch up to the others.

He catches up to Hawk, who's working rearguard, and claps him on the back, "[How're you holding up, Hawk?]" The clones nods, "[Okay, Lieutenant. That Force-thing really is something.]" He looks ahead at Mireska's back, the generous dose of wonder in his eyes hidden behind his helmet.

The ARC trots ahead to the general's side, "Ma'am, permission to rest? The clankers aren't following, and we should take stock of our situation and regroup." He glances at Jorin, it not escaping his attention that the kid is starting to stagger and Havoc could probably use some medical attention, even if they are in a sewer.

"What's the plan, General?" asked CT-3000.

Ker'see looks out over the battlefield seeing the generator down but knowing there's little else she can do. "We are falling back troopers. Get to the BARCs and full speed to the base."

"Yes sir!" The clones quickly packed up what they had a broke into a half run towards the vehicles. Ker'see gathered her rifle and followed suit.

I could stay but why risk future missions?

Once on their BARCs they sped away from the scene.

"I agree, Lieutenant," Mireska replied to Camouflage. "We definitely need a breather."

She looked around, making a quick mental assessment of the team's health.

"Give me a moment, then I'll start dealing with the worst of our injuries as best I can," she said.

Mireska took a deep breath and then let it out slowly as she shifted her defensive focus in the Force to the more balanced "neutral" position. Alright, now I'm ready to do some healing.

First she tackled Jorin. Padawans first! "You've been very brave, Jorin, and I'm proud of the way that you dealt with the droidekas and the shield generator. Good thinking!" She patted his shoulder and sent a strong burst of healing energy through his body, removing the worst of his injuries and pain.

Next up was Camo. He's been one of the most effective of us all, so let's make sure that he stays in top form. "Those were some very effective moves that you made, Lieutenant," Mireska passed her hand over his arm, working her Force-given healing. "I'm truly sorry that I couldn't save Fury," she added softly.

Then she turned her attention to Havoc's unconscious form. Ouch! That's a lot of damage - this won't be easy at all. Mireska pulled on the threads in the Force to reweave Havoc's body tissue. "I've stopped the bleeding, any infection, and closed his wounds, but I'll need to work on him further - preferably in more sterile conditions back at the garrison. Unfortunately, I don't think that we can save his arm - but a cybernetic replacement should be possible."

Finally Mireska turned to Hawk. At least this looks like an easy fix! "Let's get you back into top form!" she said to him with a smile, and sent a burst of reinvigorating and healing energy through his body.

Mireska straightened up, stretching to ease the muscles in her lower back, and then noticed her own hurts, not to mention the blood on her tunics. Some of that's my blood too, she realised. And I'm still not breathing quite right. Time to fix that. Another moment's focus, and all her wounds and pain were gone.

"Alright then. Are we ready to push on back towards the garrison?" she asked the group at large.

"Thank you, General." He hesitates for a moment, then adds, "It's what we were born to do. No regrets, Ma'am. We all know we'll pull the short straw one day."

He watches as she tends to Havoc and Hawk, glad to see the positive effect it has on them. Hawk, still amazed by the general, seems much more comfortable and is moving around much more easily, checking his wounds as if expecting them to reappear at any moment. Havoc is still unconscious, but he's breathing more easily and looks much more comfortable. Probably for the best... let's get him back to base before... before we have to tell him about Fury.

Anakkona walks up to Camouflage where he's reclining against the wall and slips something into the ARC's hand. Knowing it's Fury's armor tally, Camouflage tucks it into a pouch in his utility belt and nods to the trooper. "[Vor'e, vod.]"

In response to the General's query, Camouflage pushes off from the wall. "Ready, General. Anakkona, take Fury. Ghost, you take Havoc. I'll take point, Shadow you bring up the rear." Ghost and Shadow return from sentry duty and start to follow up on the Lieutenant's orders while Camouflage presses on ahead, checking the map and finding his bearings.

Jorin walks up to Camouflage, equal sadness and frustration. Lieutenant, I'm sorry I couldn't do more to protect the men... He glances towards Fury. I...I never asked what happens to you all when you are killed in combat.. Is there funeral arrangements...?

He pats Jorin on the shoulder reassuringly, "You did fine, kid. You can't do everything. Don't let it eat at you." Then he sighs and shakes his head, "Either the Republic takes them, or they're left to rot on the battlefield until cleaned away by the civvies who come to rebuild. Sometimes we give our own a decent burial. No one misses a dead clone."

"They should !" Mireska said fiercely. "Your faces may have been identical at birth - decanting - but every one of you is a unique light in the Force. There is no such thing as 'just a clone'!"

She paused to collect herself. Clearly I'm getting attached to them already. But do I really care that the various Jedi Councils would look down on that? No. That sort of ivory tower hermit existence has never been my goal in life.

"What about some sort of memorial ritual when we return? Could I help with expediting anything like that?"

Camouflage is somewhat taken aback by Mireska's reaction, though he appreciates the sentiment. "I was planning on finding a nice spot to bury him."

The ARC hesitates, considering, then reaches behind his back and pulls the armor tally out of his belt, holding it out on his palm for the Jedi to see. "This is Fury's armor tally... I've been collecting these as... memorials."