Ker'see raises her eyebrow at the statement. "Indeed. We are infiltrating a monastry on the planet Teth to rescue someone we believe kidnapped by the CIS forces. We are going to be part of the second wave after General Mireska, her Padawan and a clone battalion secure the landing pad."

The Devaronian quickly turned round and marched to the LAAT. "Let's go. And don't worry The Duchess won't attack."

Still not getting any solid answers from her fellow Jedi, Chee'Okee decided to just trust in the Jedi Council's wisdom. When faced with uncertainty, a jedi always trusted in their training and in the Force, so today would be no different. A path was before her, so she would take it.

Looking down at the Nexu loyally following Ker'see, Chee'Okee did not see anything to fear. The creature would likely be focused on commands given and would have been trained by now to not attack Jedi or clone troopers. Walking toward the LAAT, Chee'Okee again walked with her hands behind her back and pensively thought about what they were going to encounter planet-side. When everyone was situated and prepared for planet entry, she closed her eyes and meditated.

Under cover of night, the LAAT/i gunship Spaceward, Ho! shoots along at high altitude, maintaining radio silence. The red lights in the troop bay give the stark white armor of the clone troopers inside an eerie glow. Camouflage and Varactyl squad in contrast look like shadows, the red lighting only serving to make them look even darker.

Aside from some snatches of miscellaneous chatter, the trip proceeds mostly in silence. The jumpmaster, standing at the front of the troop bay, barks, "Five minutes!"

The clones respond with a chorus of "Five minutes!" and at the jumpmaster's instruction all twenty-five jumpers line up on the sides. "Check equipment!" Camouflage checks Jorin's pack, as the kid checks Ghost's, and so on down all four lines. Poe checks Mireska's jetpack, then her helmet and goggles. "You're lookin' fine, ma'am. Don't sweat it, you'll do great. If you don't, well, at least you won't notice." A few of the closest clones try to stifle laughter at this, only somewhat succeeding.

The jumpmaster checks with the crew, then barks, "Two minutes thirty!" a call echoed by the troopers.

Ghost is tapping his foot impatiently, rolling his shoulders and neck, ready to get to it. Hawk is calm and professional, the most skilled of the Varactyls in the use of a jetpack. Shadow, as usual, is pretty much unreadable, though Jorin might sense some apprehension from him, though it isn't clear whether it is apprehension for himself or for the Jedi who are with them. Anakkona is flexing his hands and crunching his knuckles, ready to be done with the waiting. Camouflage gives the kid's shoulder one last pat, exhales deeply, and braces himself for the coming jump. It's always the last couple minutes before the jump that are the most stressful. Once you're falling, your brain clicks over into mission mode. Camouflage smiles under his helmet, taking another deep breath. These jumps are fun, in a way. As long as you do it right. He mentally runs through the first few bars of a song about a jumper who froze on the way down, a cautionary tale taught to the airborne troops by one of the training sergeants and about the closest thing they'd get to a lullaby or bedtime story. He's shaken out of these thoughts by a call of "Stand to the door!" and complies along with the rest of his line, spreading out across the length of the troop bay.

"Thirty seconds!" The doors slide open on either side, but the light is still red.

"Ten seconds!" Still red...

5... 4... Camouflage mentally counts. 2... 1...

"Green light, GO, GO, GO!" the jumpmaster calls as the lights in the compartment suddenly flip to green. Camouflage, Jorin, and Varactyl squad fling themselves out of Spaceward, Ho! 's starboard side and into the wind, mirrored by the first group on the port side. The second ranks step forwards and the jumpmaster calls "GO!" sending them out the doors and plummeting towards the mesa below.

The gunship closes its door and climbs again, heading back to the Acclamator, leaving twenty-three clones and two Jedi plummeting towards the monastery courtyard.

Jorin looked around the crew compartment of the LAAT/I as they descended into the atmosphere, the Clone Troopers white armor glowed in the red light. Should've put a dull coat of paint on that before we left.. Jorin thought to himself, he would have to remember that if they continued to go on covert missions. Camouflage and his squad were almost black in this light, just faint glints of reflective light off their visors. Jorin suddenly realized he was also wearing a stark white helmet. Pudoo.. as soon as we land, I'll have to rub in some dirt.. If I get the chance...

He could sense apprehension from several people, both from Master Mireska and some of the white armored clones.. perhaps they were thinking about their unfortunate color on a night mission.

Finally the countdown reached one, a green light flashed, and they stepped out into.. nothing. Wind buffered him as he fell, such an odd feeling, almost weightlessness.. He listened intently to his comlink in case of an emergency, as he kept a close eye on the HUD. The Heads Up Display, Camouflage explained the acronym, showed a multitude of data; altitude, temperature, barometric pressure, and the ideal point to deploy the jetpack. He had been told that the HUD could show much more when integrated into the full armor system. It reminded him of what information gleaned through the Force. Camouflage seemed intrigued by the comparison.

Quickly picking out his targets as he plummets towards the courtyard, Camouflage picks up roughly two platoons of mixed droid infantry, four droidekas, and four AA guns. "[Picking up four AA guns. Clones! Pick your targets. Varactyl Squad, we're hitting the southeast J-1. You're more'n welcome to join us, Commander!]"

Varactyl Squad copies and then Sergeant Poe's voice cuts in, "[Gra'tua squad, we'll secure the northeast J-1.]"

"[We'll hold the line and cover you.]" Raven adds. "[See you on the other side, vode!]"

The ARC trooper turns his focus back to the rapidly approaching monastery, plotting out his course and aiming to make sure he lands in the right place. He pulls out both pistols and gets ready to hit his jets, waiting for the last... possible... moment...

NOW! He spins, kicking on the jetpack and descending amongst a hail of blaster fire directed at the closest group of super battle droids. As soon as his feet hit the ground, he makes a dash for the J-1, still firing at the droids. "[Varactyls, take out those supers!]" Having downed four of the droids, he quickly ducks behind the leg of the cannon as they start to turn their blasters towards him, but Varactyl Squad is already drawing a bead on the droids at the Lieutenant's order. As Camouflage hears their deecees start kicking up a fuss, he heaves himself up into the gunner's seat, intending to use the gun against the other AA. "[Commander, keep that rollie off us!]"

Varactyl squad finishes off the super battle droids and then turn their fire on some standard B1s, eliminating three of their number. "Rule number one!" Ghost shouts triumphantly as they four clones dash into cover behind the J-1. "Watch your left!" Anakkona shouts as another squad of battle droids suddenly appears, rushing towards the clones.

Camouflage turns his focus to the cannon's controls, trying to get the gun online.

Mireska was zooming through the air with a rocket strapped to her back, and was not panicking. No, not at all.

Ah, who'm I kidding? But it's also fun !

In her enthusiasm she overtook Camouflage and the others, before veering off to slow down a bit and observe their landing.

Nice! Let's see if I can do as well.

She threw herself into the worst of the combat to come. Let's see, one droideka, a supervisor B1, a B2 group, and three B1 groups, plus another droideka and some friends just around the corner. That will be interesting ...

Mireska landed close beside the droideka which stood upon the landing platform.

"Hello there!" she said with a smile, as she drew her lightsabre and fell into a focusing stance.

One in-drawn breath, and she began to move. Dancing around the droideka, she slashed once at its built-in blasters before sinking her lightsabre into its electronic guts and then moving back to survey the results.

Hmmm, still some room for improvement on my part - its blasters are still functional, although it'll have some difficulty using them. Time to prepare for incoming fire.

Mireska flipped on her portable plasma shield and settled into a stance more suited for parrying or reflecting incoming attacks. Immersing herself in the Force, she prepared to let it direct her movements.

Poe is the first down, instantly swiveling to a crouch and firing several shots into the nearest droideka as his men descend around him. Raven joins his fire to that of his fellow sergeant and the droideka explodes under the barrage. One of the troopers throws a droid popper at the cluster of B2, deactivating all of them in a pulse of crackling blue energy.

Jorin smiled, eager to test out his new lightsaber. He kicked in his jets and let them slow his decent enough so he could safely drop the remaining couple of feet. He activated his saber just before touching the stone pavers of the monastery's courtyard, slicing easily through the Droideka's armor, the blades thrummed as he spun the hilt and sliced again with the other blade. Jorin was impressed with the ease the blades cut through the droid's armor as if it wasn't there. The droideka crumpled to the ground in a shower of sparks as Jorin spun back towards Camouflage and the men, ready to provide assistance when needed. Alright men, this is where the fun begins...

As more of the clones land around the northeast cannon, the battle droids guarding it open fire on the clones, who scatter and return fire. One clone goes down under the barrage and a second is hit, but the clones still dropping in lay down a hail of fire, dropping one droid and hitting another. Several of the clones rush the droids to get under their guns and start grappling with them, disrupting their formation and setting them on their back foot.

The droid supervisor points to Jorin, "Focus fire on the Jedi!" then opens fire himself, "Die, Jedi dog!" Jorin effortlessly bats away the fire from the droids, spinning his lightsaber like a whirlwind.

The droideka in the center of the courtyard deploys its shield and turns its fire towards Jorin and Camouflage. Jorin steps into the fray, lightsaber whirling, and catches several bolts, the rest either flying harmlessly by or slamming into the cannon.

Out on the landing platform, Mireska slashes at the droideka again as it turns and rolls away, scoring a light mark across the back of its chassis before it deploys and unleashes withering hail of fire. Her lightsaber is a blaze of light as she bats away the bolts left and right, managing to deflect the bulk of the barrage and then send a bolt back, straight into the unshielded droideka's faceplate, destroying it. The droid supervisor, panicky, points to Mireska. "Shoot the Jedi! Shoot the JEDIII!! I don't want to be deactivated!" Every droid on the platform turns their fire on Mireska, who batters away their fire, holding her ground seemingly effortlessly.

Two groups of droids break for the western cannons, climbing up into position and starting to bring them to bear on the Republic forces.

A squad of supers and regular battle droids advance towards the commandeered cannon, firing on the clones. Camouflage, exposed in the weapon's turret, takes a solid hit that nearly knocks him out of the gunner's seat, though his armor protects him from the worst of it. The droids who flanked around to Varactyl Squad's left have no luck targeting the clones, their shots either bouncing off of the cannon or zipping harmlessly by.

More droids advance towards the clones in the north, firing into their midst. Poe is sprinting towards the cannon when he takes a hit to the back of his leg. He pitches forwards, his rifle flying out of his hands, and lands hard on the pavement.

Mireska took another deep breath to re-centre herself, then continued her dancing motion towards the nearest group of B2 battledroids. She moved with a purpose and a will, using her lightsabre to cut into several of the integrated wrist blasters which had been aimed in her direction, and then performing a perfect diagonal hemi-corporectomy on an untouched B2. Its top half crashed to the ground in one direction while its bottom half wobbled a few moments before falling in the other direction.

Her last twirl was a bit unbalanced, with the result that the lightsabre tipped out of her hand during that last, twisting turn. She gulped and immediately activated her magnetic weapon tether to bring it back to her grip.

Thank the Force that Ker'see demonstrated the benefits of magnetic weapon tethers on Geonosis! That alone has probably saved my bacon more times than I can count!

With that thought, Mireska settled back into the stance more suited for parrying or reflecting incoming attacks. She was still immersed deeply enough in the Force that she could allow it to direct her defensive movements.

Jorin moved to the Droideka in the center of the Courtyard and reached out with the Force, concentrating on lifting the droid high enough to do some damage. The voice of the supervisor droid irritated him, that nasal cry of a voice so loud it reverberated it's vocabulator like crystal scratching glass. Jorin needed to take out the larger threats before tackling the annoyances.

Destroyers could wipe out a squad if I don't do something! Jorin felt a darkness touch him as he managed to lift the Droid high into the air, before he realized what he had tapped into, releasing it as the shock of what he did flooded his mind. No! He breathed as the droid fell to the stone floor.

"Nice one, kid!" Hawk yells.

"Watch those supers!" Camouflage yells from the turret as he tries to wrangle the controls.

"On it boss!" Anakkona yells, pulling out a droid popper. "Cover me, vode!" The rest of Varactyl Squad keeps up their fire to cover Anakkona as he steps out from the cannon to get a line on the target, quickly chucking the grenade before ducking back into cover. The grenade rolls to the center of the droid formation and detonates, sending the super battle droids to the deck in a convulsing heap. Some nearby droids take the opportunity to fire on Anakkona as he dives back into cover, managing to land a hit to his torso. Ghost grabs him and turns him around, quickly checking the severity of the injury. "You'll be fine, Ana. It's not bad" Anakkona glares at him under his helmet. Ana? Really? " I coulda told you that. Keep firing!"

Camouflage looks up as he hears the distinctive sound of incoming LAATs, then glances at his helmet's chrono and redoubles his efforts to bring the cannon to bear on the remaining turret. Over comms to the entire team, he says, "[Take out those cannons now ! LAATs on incoming, ETA one minute.]"

Sergeant Poe quickly crawls a couple feet and grabs his blaster rifle, rolling into a crouch and firing at the droids attempting to man the other J-1. "Focus fire on those droids, we can't let them fire that thing!" His leg buckles under him and throws off his fire, but one of the droids staggers back into the open. Gritting his teeth against the pain, Poe pulls the rifle back up to his shoulder and draws a bead on the droids.
Seeing his fellow sergeant in trouble, Raven waves to his men and rushes towards the cannon, stopping and pulling up his rifle to fire at the droids. He blasts apart the one Poe set up, then shoots the head off a second and scores a nearly fatal hit to a third. His troopers kneel and fire from across the courtyard, spraying the cannon in fire and eliminating the remaining droids under a hail of fire.
The rest of the clones continue exchanging fire with the droids. Each side takes several casualties, but the clones get the better of the exchange for the moment.

Aiming for the remaining flak cannon, Camouflage wheels the J-1 around and fires. The cannon recoils back on its carriage and the flak shell slams into its target, detonating and destroying the cannon, the droids, the pile of shells, and half the monastery wall behind it. "HAHA! The gunships are clear!" He switches to a frequency to General Ker'see and says, "General, you are clear, you are clear. Repeat, you are clear!"

Mireska is now surrounded by droids, and has to continue her frenzied dance to fend off their attacks. She brings up her plasma shield to block a hit, but the shield shorts out, lowering her defenses on that side. As the droids surrounding her keep up their fire, one of the bolts gets throw and strikes her in the abdomen, though the armor plates take most of the hit.

After the cannon behind him explodes, the supervisor droid inside the courtyard picks himself up and fires at Jorin. The young Jedi whirls but, unused to the double-bladed saber, his attempt to deflect the bolt results in the hilt slipping out of his hand just as several more droids fire at him. He ducks back behind the cover of the cannon's leg, but one hit glances up off the durasteel and hits him in a weak point in his armor, knocking the wind out of him.

The Nexu did its best to pace in the LAAT but due to the amount of bodies around it she was getting stressed by being unable to. Ker'see opened their force bond and used to it calm the beast.

-Easy Girl, it won't be much longer. We must have faith our companions can make it safe for us to land.

The Jedi looked over the assembled clones seeing their eagerness, despite their helmets. Her eyes then fell on her newest companion but she wasn't sure what to make of them yet. She'd met the Jedi in passing back at the temple but hadn't worked previously with them. Time will tell on their effectiveness.

Having to stand for planetary entry was a new experience for Chee'Okee, but nothing a trained Jedi could not handle. She stood there, eyes closed, focusing on their destination. Her limited ability to reach out through the Force and detect other life forms was a byproduct of spending more time in the Jedi Archives than in the field. Chee'Okee was very apt in her ability to find things , not people. Still, she took the opportunity to practice and hone her attunement to the Force. By the time she would be able to detect living things, they would be close enough to the battle for her to see them anyways. Masters of the Force, however, could detect being from orbit and quite often those with links through the Force could detect the passing of a friend or mentor across the galaxy.

Realizing that she could make preparations of sorts right now, the Jedi opened her eyes and looked Ker'see over. The Devaronian's most unique item was a bow of some kind. Chee'Okee familiarized herself with the item, in case she had to track down her fellow Jedi anytime today or in the future.

Inside the red-lit troop bay of the Bad Kitty , Sergeant Allen calls "Thirty seconds!" The clones inside the packed troop bay shift in anticipation, ready to barge out and engage the droids the minute they touch down and the doors open. A couple of them nervously eye the Duchess, who is feeding off the excitement and starting to slobber. Shortly after the Sergeant calls "Ten!" They hear the ball and chin turrets open up.

Blazing away at the droids with their ball turrets and twin cannons, Lucky Lekku , Wampa Runner , and Bad Kitty scream to a stop at the platform. In their attempts to avoid Mireska, they don't have much effect on the droids who scatter every which way, but Wampa Runner successfully blasts an entire group to shrapnel as it sets down the AT-TE it's carrying.

The lights inside the Bad Kitty 's troop bay turn green and Allen yells "Green light! Go, go, go!" sending the clones rush out of the troop bay. The moment the side doors open, a clone swings out a pintle-mounted heavy repeating blaster and begins pounding away at the droids, the steady BRUP-BRUP-BRUP of the cannon and its twin from the other gunship heralding the slagging of multiple droids.

Mireska looked up at the landing gunships disgorging their contents and spitting weaponfire at the droids around her. Anyone looking in her direction could see that the looser portions of her clothing had been subjected to recent blasterfire.

"Oh, good," she said faintly, "You've arrived."

Mireska patted out some smouldering rips in her outer tunic, re-set her portable plasma shield and flipped it back on. Thank the Force, it still works! She was interrupted by the unmistakeable sensation of blood in her mouth. Great, internal injuries. Mireska laid a hand gingerly over her stomach. The Force eagerly answered her call, healing the damage caused by the most recent barrage from the droids.

"Jorin!" she muttered distractedly to herself, then spat out the last of the blood in her mouth and called upon the Force again. She leapt smoothly over the monastery's wall into the south-eastern courtyard, towards the location where she last saw the young padawan landing. Her lightsabre was at the ready to deflect and reflect any more enemy fire.

Camouflage jumps off the cannon and dashes around the back and towards the droids. "I'll draw their fire, take 'em all down!" He blazes away with his hand blasters, dropping several droids as the clones of Varactyl Squad spring up from behind their cover and spray blaster fire at the droid formation, dropping a few more. "Watch it, Lieutenant!" Ghost yells.

The LAAT landed unceremoniously and the dim lights inside the vehicle suddenly turned green. Although Chee'Okee had her eyes closed, she could sense the tension in the air shift dramatically. The clones were all now hyped up and exiting the LAAT to fulfill their purpose. The Jedi was about to survey the field of battle and make a strategic call, but had to remind herself that this clone unit had not been assigned to her. Chee'Okee had done her diligence after the Clone Wars were declared to learn about warfare and strategy, since Jedi were now expected to be field commanders as well as peacekeepers, but she had not yet been given any clones to lead. Keeping all of that in mind, she simply focused on herself and would protect her life until the Force gave her guidance.

Exiting the vehicle, she kept up with the clones, but stayed behind them as to not disrupt their fields of fire. It looked as if most of the droids were already dispatched, so she would not have much instruction to impart on the flow of battle anyways. Still, she drew her lightsaber in case any stray shots came in her direction.

"That's it boys, the larties have arrived!" Poe yells as he swivels and blasts at another group of droids. Raven turns and runs back, dropping into a crouch and joining his fire to Poe's. Combined, they manage to take out all five droids in the cluster, leaving only a couple more stragglers inside the compound.

Seeing the devastation left behind by the clones Ker'see spots a group of B1s readying for an attack. Ker'see pulls out the sniper and takes careful aim and waits for the group the line up. The force helps guides her shot and she leans into slightly, not allowing herself to depend too much on it to defeat her foes.

When the B1s neatly line up as they move around she shoots the droids and the powerful blaster bolt sails across the battle field slicing through 4 of the droids and smashing into another, not quite enough to destroy it but leaving it wobbly.

She drops the rifle behind her calling: "Look after that boys!" She quickly turns to the nexu: "Let's go!" She wills the force behind her and leaps into cover quickly followed by The Duchess who easily keeps pace with the Jedi.

The remaining clones inside the compound focus on eliminating the remaining battle droids. Poe's squad stacks up in a textbook position and just lights the clankers up, sending bolt after bolt smashing into their bony frames and quickly destroying the remaining droids on their side of the courtyard. The remnants of Raven's squad charge towards where Jorin and Varactyl squad are holding off the droids and then crouch into position, squeezing off a couple shots, aiming carefully to not catch their allies in the crossfire. It only takes four shots and two hits, and the pair of remaining droids collapse in a heap, leaving only the supervisor droid on that side.

The droid looks around nervously, all his troops dead, "Uh-oh." Jorin swivels, turning his attention to the unfortunate B1...

Jorin used his toe to kick his Lightsaber into his hand before focusing with the Force and throwing it at the Droid. the blades were a strobing blur as the saber spun in an arc towards it's target. Oh,, nooo! the droid cried just as the saber proceeded to cut it into multiple pieces before returning to Jorin's outstretched hand. Lieutenant, Jorin called out, Press the advantage!

Camo slows to a stop, scanning the courtyard and the landing platform, where the last couple droids are just falling to the ground. He grins under his helmet, "Not sure who to press it against , kid. Looks like we've cleared the courtyard and landing platform." Camouflage turns and walks back to Varactyl Squad, checking on his men.

Out on the landing platform, the sudden influx of clone troopers was more than the few remaining droids on the platform could handle, and they were quickly dispatched. A few clone troopers walk amongst the wreckage, checking to make sure all the droids really are down and not just playing dead, a tactic some of them are painfully familiar with. A couple medics move quickly from the gunships and into the courtyard to tend to any wounded clones from the drop team.

Sergeant Poe waves off a medic as he limps over to Jorin and Mireska, saluting and delivering his report, "General, commander, we've lost one trooper killed and two wounded from my squad. Four killed and three wounded in total from the drop team."

Camouflage jogs back over to Poe and the Jedi and gives his report: "Anakkona was hit, but he'll be fine. I gave him a stimpack and he wants to continue on, it wasn't bad. We're ready to continue on into the monastery on your order, general. We've got two platoons of clones and an AT-TE, and two more platoons from the same company on standby should we need them."

"Thank you, Sergeant, Lieutenant," Mireska said, then looked around at those who were wounded - and noting both Camouflage's un-reported slight limp and Poe still shaking his hand out from when he'd landed badly and lost his blaster briefly.

"I'm open to suggestions regarding numbers and materiel for when we proceed, but first I want to ensure that the wounded are healed as effectively as possible," she added. "Let's discuss this while I heal the wounded - amongst whom I count both of you, Lieutenant Camouflage and Sergeant Poe."

Mireska walked over to Poe's two walking wounded, Camouflage and Poe trailing after.

The adrenaline still rushing through her body disrupted her first attempt to focus on the Force, but after taking a deep breath and letting it out slowly, Mireska was able to gather its threads to heal the two wounded troopers fully, holding her hands over them. Although she'd intended to use some of that "Force thread" on Camouflage, she ran out of it. I must gather more at a time - this is a battlefield, not the Halls of Healing!

Next she looked over Poe, then took his hand.

"Don't take this personally, Sergeant!" she said with a smile, then focused again. Poe's injuries and fatigue melted away like ice on Tatooine.

"As for you, Lieutenant," Mireska turned to Camouflage, "A simple shot of this will get you back up to normal speed again!" And she jabbed him with one of the many remedies in her physician's kit.

Walking toward the gathering, Chee'Okee looked over the clones and their injuries. She took note of how they handled themselves after a battle. Uncertain if she would be using it as a baseline to judge further interactions with clone units, the Jedi simply wanted to begin building her understanding of how things would be for the foreseeable future. The clone officers all look calm and collected, and the lower ranks were about the same. A Mirialan Jedi was among them, looking to be a medical officer of some kind; or at least playing the role. Chee'Okee would try speaking to her and see why the Jedi Council redirected her to assist.

"Greetings. Do you require any assistance? I have brought a few stimpacks myself."