Lightning arced across the night sky, followed almost immediately by the sharp crack of thunder. The lightning illuminated, just for a fraction of a second, the dire circumstances in which Lyton Aeros found himself. He saw clone troopers taking positions on and around the wreckage of their crashed gunship, saw the bodies of those who hadn't made it. Saw the swarm of the nightmarish creatures which had them surrounded. And then the darkness descended once again, punctuated by the chaotic blue flashes of blaster fire. The familiar noise it made was drowned out by the thunder, taking Lyton's words with it.

Silently, he cursed. He didn't need the lightning's illumination, nor that of the blaster fire, to know what was going on. The Force told him all he needed to know. They were outnumbered. Who knew this forsaken ball of rock was home to so many ravenous beasts? There certainly hadn't been any mention of it in the Republic's intel briefing. And, he wagered, the Separatists wouldn't have bothered building a base here if they'd known.

But they had. And the Republic had decided that they wanted to take that base. So they'd sent Jedi Knight General Lyton Aeros and his clone troopers to do it. Well, now they had an altogether different mission: survive until rescue arrived. With the thunder gone, Lyton drew a breath and repeated the order that had been lost just moments ago. "Close ranks! Commander Sade, we need to tighten the formation!"

Sade, his physical location hidden in the general chaos of the situation, came back over the comm. "On it, sir!"

A serrated forelimb whistled through the air near Lyton. Dodging to the side, he flipped his lightsaber up and then pivoted to bring it down again. The move severed the appendage and then killed the large insectoid beast to which it had belonged. Black ichor sprayed into the air, adding to the patchwork of stains on the Jedi's already soiled robes. It was time to fall back with the rest of the troops.

"They're pulling back," Sade's voice cracked over the comm. If the Force hadn't warned him, Lyton would have been surprised when the clone commander all but materialized out of the darkness next to him. He'd lost his helmet, but an earpiece commset allowed him to continue communicating on the command channel.

"It won't last long," Lyton said grimly. They'd done the same thing twice already… he wasn't sure why. To regroup? They were just animals… animals that had a huge advantage in numbers. What did they need to regroup for? "Get as many of the wounded in the gunship as you can. How many detonators do we have left?"

"Four," Sade reported somberly. "We'll have to use them when they come back… they almost had us this time."

Lyton nodded. It only added to the mystery of why the creatures had withdrawn. While the clones busied themselves with attempting to improve their meager defensive position, Lyton did what he'd done the last time the creatures had withdrawn. He reached out with the Force, searching for something… some intelligence that could be reasoned with among the creatures. Some emotion that would give him an insight into how to defeat them. But he felt no intelligence, just mindless obedience and instinct. He felt no malice from the creatures, no hatred. Just a sense of purpose. It was small comfort, he thought. At least his enemy wasn't trying to kill him out of hate. It reminded him of the droids he fought so often.

He frowned as something tugged at his senses. He could feel a number of the creatures nearby. Close… too close. He opened his eyes, searching. Lightning flashed again, and the rain that had been threatening for what seemed like ages finally appeared. Before he knew it, a torrent of water was pounding down on the clone's position. Through the rumble of thunder and the white noise of the rainfall, he heard it start. Just like the other times, right before they'd launched another attack. A chattering noise, like wooden slats clacking together at an unbelievable rate. The clones heard it, too. "Get ready!" Sade shouted. He pulled his pistols from their holsters and pointed them into the darkness. Aiming wouldn't matter much… there were plenty of targets.

And then they came, a wave even darker than the night rolling across the now muddy landscape. The clones opened fire, and once again something tugged at Lyton's senses. They were close… he almost dismissed the feeling, but caught himself. One didn't just dismiss what the Force was saying. The front lines of the incoming enemy hoard fell to the withering fire of the clones, and Lyton tried to focus. Something was close… closer than the front ranks of the swarm. So where…?

He felt a slight vibration under his feet, heard the krak-boom of a detonater exploding amidst the incoming creatures. Only the vibration didn't stop with the explosion. Lyton's eyes widened. "Below us!" he shouted, "Sade, they're underneath!"

The clone commander turned to look at Lyton, a grim look on his face. He knew what that meant. And there wasn't a damn thing they could do about it. The first of the creatures burst from the ground around the downed gunship a second later and started to attack the nearest clones. Their simple fortifications breached, the clones began to fall. Serrated forelimbs and mandibles cracked white armor as if it was made of simple plastic, and the troopers began to scream as they died.

Lyton's lightsaber wove a defensive pattern as several of the creatures closed on him. "Sade!" he shouted, hoping that somehow the commander was still alive. His green blade sliced through the armored thorax of an attacking creature, and he heard only static. The screams were gone. In mere seconds, it was over… for everybody but Lyton. Taking a deep breath, he attempted to center himself.

"There is no emotion," he told himself through gritted teeth, fighting down the anger and despair at the loss of his troops, "there is peace." Breathe, move, strike.

"There is no ignorance," With the first line out, the next came easily, becoming a mantra that accompanied his movements across the field of battle. "There is knowledge." If he kept moving, they couldn't overwhelm him.

"There is no passion," he recited, finally finding himself calm and centered. "There is serenity." He found his movements becoming more fluid, and the combat became a deadly dance as his saber lashed out again and again to cut down creature after creature.

"There is no chaos," he said, and paused. The swarm had stopped attacking. They pulled back out of range to form a solid mass of chattering insectoids, surrounding him while staying out of reach of his lightsaber. They were consolidating, removing the possibility of his engaging them one on one. He planted his feet in the mud, saber held in a defensive posture. "There is harmony…"

For several tense seconds, there was only the sound of the rain. "There is no death," Lyton breathed, muscles twitching in anticipation. Lightning flashed across the battlefield. Thunder rumbled. "There is the Force."

As one, the swarm charged again.

Re: There is no death...

The distant rumble of thunder played at the edges of his consciousness, slowly, slowly bringing him back to his senses. Brushing the dirt from his torn and muddied robes, Rha Zhon got shakily to his feet and glanced about him. He stood on a desolate hillside and stretching out before him lay a barren, rocky landscape. It was night and all was in darkness. The oppressive alien gloom illuminated only by the intermittent flashes of lightening that forked down from the brooding, stormy sky. There was no lights, no sign of life of any kind that he could see. The young Kel Dor Jedi reached out with the force, searching for any indication of another living being anywhere nearby.

As he did so the events that had lead him to this place began to replay over in his mind. His own Master, the Jedi knight Delvas Mazzo had been killed barely a month earlier in a starfighter engagement with Separatist forces. As a consequence he had been paired with Master Aeros. However before he could get really acquainted with his new master they had been dispatched to this forsaken and remote planetoid. The Separatists had reportedly constructed a base here. The council felt that they would not have done so unless they had a good reason. They wanted to know what that reason was. Thus Master Aeros and Rha as the only readily available Jedi had been assigned  a platoon of Elite Clone troops and sent to investigate.   

Rha had fallen from the open side door of the Gunship as it had made its final emergency approach into this planet. He remembered calling the force to him as he fell. Drawing on its power to shield him from the force of the impact that would have killed a none Jedi. It had just barely been enough. He was still bruised and shaken from the fall, but nothing was broken. What had become of Master Aeros and their troops; he did not know.

As the Padawan continued to push out with his mind, probing for signs of life, he felt the faintest hint of a presence. He focused on it, pressing for more details. Suddenly it coalesced. It was master Aeros. He was alive. Rha was elated, relief flooded into him. Every beings presence in the force was unique, like a finger print. After two months of fighting at the human Jedis side, Rha had no problem indentifying him.

 Thank the force he was alive!

Rha focused his mind. Concentrating on the presence he tried desperately to get some sense of the other Jedis condition. Suddenly it hit him. Fear, worry, concern. Master Aeros was in trouble. Something was attacking him. Something big, very big. Rha couldn’t get much of a sense of it but whatever it was it was huge and it emanated an overbearing sense of menace. Not anger or aggression but an overwhelming predatory hunger.

The raw, visceral, animalistic hunger of the beast turned Rha's blood cold and he felt the first hint of fear begin to rise in him. Although now grown accustomed to the fear and emotion of battle by the events of the war, the Kel Dor was still a teenager of only 19 years  and he had not yet completely mastered his emotions. He closed his eyes beneath their protective metal goggles and forced his breathing to return to normal.

‘There is no emotion; there is peace.’ He reminded himself breathing slowly in and out. Master Aeros needed his help and quickly.  Rha leapt from his high perch. Scrambling down through the rocks he landed on the barren plains below. Calling the force to him, he began to run in the direction of his master.  As he moved with supernatural, force enhanced speed he reached out towards the other Jedis mind.

 ‘I’m coming Master. Hold on.’