Younglings

Desmond was granted the rank of Commander the next day and given a squad of men to lead in the field.

Heather however was on a strict saber training regiment with a promise at the first opportunity to be given some time planet-side to show the full range of her abilities.

She wasn't eager to show them or to fight in a war but she didn't want to see these men die either. She could save countless soldiers with her magic. She only needed to show Kenobi what that entailed.

"General Kenobi the fleet is ready for evacuation procedures." Admiral Brock says.

"Very well, inform the 501st and the 364th that they are to cover the Northern flank of the evacuation zone. Make sure the 364th's commander is aware of the separatists battalion nearing sector 114. Their anti-aircraft cannons are focused above that specific area. They'll need to go into position by foot."

He moves a marker onto the three dimensional hologram of the city they were evacuating.

"Inform the 501st that they have some commando droids spotted in their area, probably scouts. They need to be taken out before they get through the signal scramble."

"Is that everything sir?" The com officer asks.

"Yes, the 212th shall be in sectors 361 -365 in case there are any emergencies Admiral."

The admiral nods, "Understood General, good luck."

Kenobi turns to her, "You're with me Padawan."

She follows him closely as he makes his way to the shuttle. The only thing she was decent with her weapon was reflecting blaster bolts. It was the minimal requirement for field duty. Because she passed this she wasn't going to be kept on the ship with a small squad of men to guard her.

She would have to stay with the older Jedi and have his back... more notably he would have her back.

They quickly make it to the transport.

Heather has a quick flash of amusement when one of the men, one who had very scuffed up armor, makes an aborted motion to pick her up to presumably place her in the vehicle.

She gives the man a knowing smile and hops onto the transport, ignoring the subtle embarrassment coming from him even as he follows the others inside.

"We're all here let's be underway." Obi-wan says to the pilot.

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They pierce the atmosphere with a bang, Heather could already feel to her left one of the transports being hit as echos of the men's mental screams reach her... tainting the force as it goes down.

Ribbons of black soot darken the sky as ground artillery fires into the air, bursts of explosions shatter the sky even as they dart between them.

The transport shudders as the door suddenly blasts off taking the man holding onto it, his scream renting the air.
She doesn't think... she leaps forward into the wind after the man.

Feeling a wave of concern behind her she sends a solid "I'm fine" back at Kenobi, even as she catches up to the falling soldier.

He was still screaming even as she grabs his belt. Concentrating her magic she sends it out and around him commanding it to slow the man's decent. He continues to scream even as his body settles into one place.

"You can stop now, you're safe... relatively."

The soldier stops with a gulp and rips off his helmet, revealing the cloned and panicked face of Jango Fett. He looks down at his feet, sweat dripping everywhere and his eyes wide. "Am I dead?"

"No.." he takes a couple more deep breaths, clearly trying to calm down, "I can't hold us both up with the force. You mind helping me?" She said it casually but she didn't want to spend the entire time in the air hanging from the man's belt.

The startled look he gives her is enough to convince her that he didn't notice her just hanging from his side.

The still unnamed soldier jams his bucket back on his head and halls her up wrapping his arms around her in a death grip, his armor digging into her..

She was fairly certain the man was holding onto her not to keep her safe but so she could act like a child's teddy warding off the situation. But to be fair to the man, he had just been saved from certain death.

"Umm... Commander how do we...."

"...get down? Just a moment.."

With a handful of sparks she casts a spell on him allowing him to float until he reaches the ground, allowing her to release her hold keeping him from falling. Then she casts the spell again on herself. "There that should do it..."

The soldier keeps holding onto her, "You can let me go now.."

He does so with haste a familiar spike of embarrassment coming from him. She quickly realizes he's the same trooper that tried to give her a leg up.

There's a blast above them another transport was hit, flames were coming from it's front.

Acting on instinct, Heather catches the transport slowing it down and swinging it around them like a carnival ride in order to rid it of it's forward momentum.

The men inside were yelling, scrambling, flames still coming from the engine in front. She draws it closer and rips the hood off quickly, concentrating she freezes a thick layer of ice around and in the inside of the engine giving the fire nothing to feed off of. The smoke disperses.

Still holding it up she puts the floating spell on the transport so she could release her hold on it. Propelling herself forward she climbs aboard, dragging the formally falling man into the broken vehicle with her.

"COMMANDER!! WE CAN'T STAY STATIONARY LIKE THIS!! WE'RE GOING TO BE BLASTED OUT OF THE AIR!!" the officer yells over the explosions happening around them.

"I KNOW... GIVE ME A MOMENT!" she takes a calming breath and focuses her magic... or the force.... around the floating transport. "Descende leniter!!!"

The transport moves downwards quickly and steadily but not at a lethal speed. It was unaffected by the air resistance or gravity. The tension inside was thick among the men there as they streak through the air.

"SIR, THAT'S BEHIND ENEMY LINES. WE CAN'T LAND THERE." the same man yells, stress practically vibrating from him.

"I'M SORRY, I CAN'T CHANGE OUR TRAJECTORY NOW... WE'RE GOING TO HAVE TO DEAL WITH IT." the spell couldn't be changed once started.

As they enter the smoke filled streets she sends a prayer into force that they would be okay.

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Thirty four men saved that would have died otherwise... thirty five if he counted the 212th soldier that she dragged along out of mid-air. Only one of the pilots died, the other was mildly wounded.

They quickly made their way into a old warehouse a bit away from the crash site.

"Commander, what are your orders?" Sergeant Coric asks the Jedi Padawan.

The cupid-like young girl shakes her head, "I'm not cleared for field command yet, so I believe you are in command Sergeant. I'll give you warnings if I feel something in the force."

"You're not cleared..." Coric blanks out for a second and takes a deep breath, "Then how did you get here?"

"I was to accompany General Kenobi onto the field but.... " she looks at the 212th soldier, "..the force wanted to give this trooper a impromptu flying lesson. It was a bit stuffy in the transport so I thought I'd join him for some fresh air."

"..fresh air??... outside... " he realizes what she meant after only a moment of thought and gives her a deadpanned look, "You jumped out... of coarse you jumped out of a transport."

The girl shrugs unrepentant and he couldn't find it in himself to lecture her about it, she pretty much saved their skins with that move. If she was in the other transport she wouldn't have been out to catch them too..

"Is the force telling you anything right now?" he could use as much intel as she could give him.

She nods and points southwards and to his right, "General Kenobi is about five clicks in that direction... he's a slight bit frustrated, I might be the reason why." she points directly behind him, "Commander Cody is in that direction about six clicks, and Desmond, another padawan, he's actually a certified commander, is near him doing something high off the ground, I think he's in a tall building." She points to his left, "There's a force presence that way, I believe it's General Skywalker considering the force presence is light and very strong, he's about three clicks away.... but I can feel a lot of mechanical things between us and them... I think it's a large contingent of battle droids."

That was actually very useful, "How many battle droids do you think there are?"

"Hundreds, if not thousands... I could also be confusing them with something like a highly mechanized factory but considering the city is being evacuated..."

"...All of that would be turned off and sabotaged...." he didn't see a large factory in the area, but even if he did he'd have to assume it was battledroids.

The girl gets a thoughtful look on her face, "Also General Kenobi mentioned commando droids spotted in the area that General Skywalker was going to be in, he thought they might be scouts."

Commando droids...

They were fast and deadly and even Commanders, ARF and ARC troopers fell to the fuckers.... but being forewarned was being forearmed.

This was doable.

"Huzzah, you and 843 go and scout from a distance. We need to have visual of what we're dealing with." the two men give a quick salute and move to follow his order.

"One moment, I can do something that can help. Come over here real quick." the girl climbs onto the crate and waves them over. The two cautiously approach her after getting a nod from him.

The girl reaches up and lays a palm onto the middle of the two men's foreheads and mutters something under her breath, something changes in the air as a light encompasses the two men..... suddenly he could see through them... they were translucent, like they had a rare stealth field around them. They were almost completely invisible.

"Woah!" one of the other men says as the others start talking low among themselves.

"That's..." the two men were looking at themselves and not moving, "I believe I gave you two orders! Stay together and get back here as quickly as possible." Coric orders, snapping.

The men don't hesitate and rush out the door.

Coric has never seen General Skywalker use that particular skill and he couldn't see the General NOT using something that useful if he knew how to do it.

But Coric knew enough when to shut up or at least keep something to himself. It's obvious that it wasn't a known ability. There wasn't a rumor... not even a peep about that particular skill among his brothers as far as he knew... something like that would definitely be talked about.

"Hey" he snaps at his gossiping men, "Eyes only. Keep that under your buckets. I don't want to hear anything about that elsewhere. Am I clear!?" he orders.

All of them snap to attention, "Sir!"

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"So your name is Belldrum?"

The 212th soldier nods sheepishly. "Yeah, I know it's weird. When I was a cadet I came across a bell and kept messing with it until a trainer took it away. Was probably going to be called something like 'Bellie' but later I kept drumming on stuff. So Belldrum came up as a possibility and my batchmates wouldn't call me anything else so I got stuck with it."

"So the 212th has three commanders? That's got to be a bit much." one of the 501st asks, his name was Vere?

Another clone snorts, "Are you stupid or something? Can't two Sergeants work together? The senior sergeant trumps the junior when it comes to orders... besides Commander Cody is a Marshal Commander. He technically outranks normal Generals, he won't let anything between the other Commanders get messy."

"Technically Jedi Commanders are under the Command of their Jedi Generals." Sargent Coric points out with a sigh, "Any issue between them would be up to him to deal with."

"I don't think it's going to be much of an issue between Desmond and I. Desmond is the one with experience in traditional military." she points out.

Coric looks at her with an air of disbelief, "How can a cadet have any experience?" he pauses and realizes something, "Wait..... Nevermind, it's probably over my clearance level. I don't want to know."

Well he wasn't wrong. Kenobi hasn't had a chance to have much of a briefing with the other Generals, even the 501st general his former Padawan... her sort of new 'brother'. He wouldn't be allowed to know much of anything until then.
Feeling something at the edge of her senses, she pauses and reaches out.

"They're coming back. There's someone with them. Feels like another Clone."

In spite of her assessment the sergeant is on his feet signaling his men to the ready. She was instantly dwarfed by the thirty plus men as they move into defensive positions behind beams and crates, aiming their blasters at the door.

A couple chirps sound out and then a pop that sounded particularly odd.

Coric reciprocates but does the pop sound first and the chirps second.

The translucent scouts make their way in but quickly move to make room for a third visible clone.

There was an air of command around this new clone. He was also much older. The markings on his armor was red, not 212th gold or 501st blue.

As one each and every clone trooper lowers their weapon and jackknifes into a salute.

"At ease." the man barks in an undertone. "Highest officer here now."

Coric marches to him and goes into a parade rest before the other clone.

"Sitrep sergeant."

Sergeant Coric doesn't hesitate, "Our current orders are to join the evacuation efforts, specifically to assist the rest of the 501st. We were to receive additional orders upon landing. We however were separated from the main bulk of the battalion, our transport was hit and we were sent off coarse, Captain."

The man nods, "And...?"

"I was taking advantage of the enemy being unaware of our location to assess out situation and then go from there, sir."
The man grunts and gives a nod of approval, "Well, I'm countermanding all sitting orders for this battle. You and your men can't reach the 501st without getting through an entire company of B-1's."

He turns to her and pulls off his helmet.

He looked rougher then the average clone. He was covered in scars and he had white at his temples.

"It also seems you found one of the enemy's main objectives." he says grimly. "You wouldn't know anything about that would you Padawan?"

He was pointedly not calling her commander.

She waves a hand at the two translucent soldiers turning them visible once more. "You're high enough in command to know exactly why."

The man grunts and nods, an air of approval about him, "Good you have more common sense then half the Jedi order."

"That's not exactly hard." she retorts without even thinking.

The clone barks out a laugh as the other clones shift uneasily.

"Good, I think I might enjoy this." he turns to Coric. "I am taking command of you and your men until such time as you can rejoin the 501st. I have a mission from forward Command to capture a Commander Droid."

"Sir!" Coric and the others salute.

He turns back to her, "You little Jedi, are coming with us."

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The main droid fighting force was over a mile away, which left mostly supply lines, patrols, and waiting reinforcement divisions in the immediate area. It was a lot to dodge with the type of numbers they had but it was doable with the assistance of her spell and a GAR stealth specialist.

Alpha 17 was a battle hardened embodiment of the Grand Army of the Republic. He had the professional air of the Commanders but an added sadistic and harsh manner that reminded her of a drill Sargent with raw recruits.

Apparently every clone knew of Alpha 17. He was infamous for being the trainer of the GAR's commanders, ARC and ARF troopers.

He however was occasionally given difficult assignments like this one.

"How are you holding up?"

They were quietly making their way to the droid army's command center. To do that Alpha had her cast the invisibility spell on the whole group. Maintaining the spell over so many wasn't straining with the force but instead for her concentration.

"I'm maintaining it."

To her embarrassment the clone had to carry her in a sling on his back. She was too slow for the troopers while she was concentrating and not having to walk allowed her to keep the spell on them all.

What's worse it reminded her of the last time she was kidnapped. The tight backpack, the bruises, the vertigo of swaying back and forth without being able to see properly... the only up side was this was a bit more dignified, she wasn't sick and she was free to move if she wanted.

"We're coming up to the building... be ready to drop the force spell." Alpha 17 murmurs quietly so only she could hear him.
Time trickles by as they inch forward, the men straining to see him so they can watch for his signals. Finally they make it past a patrol and to the side of a unassuming building, if it wasn't for the dozens of B1's around it.

Alpha signals another trooper right next to him as they sneak up to a pair of B1's in an alley. With a quick twist from both of them the heads of the two droids are ripped off and tossed into an abandoned dumpster.

"Alright clear, drop the force spell kid." Alpha grunts quietly.

The quaint little alley went from empty and a bit smelly to being filled with white armored men... but still smelly.

She moves to get down off of Alpha's back but he pushes her back before she can get out of the sling. "Wait..." he grunts adjusting the sling.

Alpha-17 signals the others and points to the upper story of the office building. This being an alley there's weren't very many windows facing it.

Multiple men, including 17, pull out grappling guns and fire off hooks, securing them onto the edge of the roof. They quickly start climbing up the side, heading to a set of windows on the upper most floor.

Swinging in the sling much like a hammock, she lifts her hands readying herself.

They slip into a room with multiple shelves and computer terminals. Obviously the Commander droid was using the database in some way.

"Secure the perimeter and set charges. Make sure that they can take out everything in here." Alpha orders as the men scramble.

"Sir, according to electromagnetic readings there is a concentration of power being diverted to the basement. It could be the objective." one of the unnamed men says.

Alpha flips open the computer panel on the other cuff of his gauntlets and flips through the readings. "What's your thoughts Padawan? Can you sense anything?"

"We're being watched. It's not from inside the building though..."

The clone looks over his shoulder, "It would have been nice if you mentioned that before we entered..."

"I only just felt it." she says annoyed. "Anyways.... it's a trap."

Alpha nods, "It's a trap." he agrees.