Trails Of War

Subject: Trails Of War Sun Apr 13, 2008 8:25 pm

this is the story of a jedi and 250 clones surviving for over 2 years on a CIS controlled planet

Subject: Re: Trails Of War Tue Apr 22, 2008 10:28 pm

Chapter 1
Death in the High Grass

104 days after Geonosis

The Sergeant stared out at the clearing from his place along the tree line. His back was tightly pressed against the tree he was using for cover as he stared out at that great open space. It must be at five hundred meters to that tree line on the other side. And with those fighters incoming, we can’t afford the time it will take to go around it. The tall grass should give some cover. Though we’ll have to make a break for it, but with those packs on, men will die before they reach the safety of those trees. A clone trooper walked up to the sergeant and placed his hand on his shoulder.
“Sir?”
The Sergeant turns his head towards him. “Yes private?”
“The comms officer needs you, sir.”
“Very well, take me to him.”
The sergeant turns his head back towards the clearing one last time before slipping away into the darkness. When they mad the fifteen minute jog back to the rest area, the sergeant stopped to look at his men as the private went back to his area. They’ve ran this far and now look at them, tired and sore footed. No matter what happens though, it will all be over at the end of today. Look at them; they’ve been hauling those one hundred kilo packs for almost 12 hours. He then walked towards the temporary “command center” that was built from the remains of a half destroyed tent when they stopped to rest. There, seated on a stump, sat the comms officer with his helmet on the ground next to him and a grim look on his face. A clone said from somewhere behind him, “Good, your back. We have some bad news.”
He turns to the comms officer, “What is the problem?”
The comms officer looks up and replied, “Those droid starfighters are closing in, if we stay here, we’ll be wiped out.”
“How did they find us?”
“We believe they used a capitol ship’s sensors to scan the forest for any large pockets of sentient life forms.”
“Move the men out. On the way I want all our E-Web’s bolted onto the back of the speeders and I want a clone manning every one of them. Oh, and private.”
“Yes sir?”
“How many rocket launchers do we have?”
“Around thirty or so.”
“I want the men to stick together but no more than five or so in a group. I don’t want them all wiped out in a single strafing run. Give out all those rocket launchers to the groups, that way they can protect the other groups and take down some of those fighters.”
“Yes sir.”
“Well, lets get them moving.”
The sergeant exited the tent and watched as the comms officer and the others in the tent exited it and got all the men on their feet and start bolting the fifteen E-Web’s to some of the backs of the fifty or so heavy cargo speeders they had taken from a giant warehouse in the capitol city of San Meal. Those E-Webs are the only thing effective against starfighters besides those launchers. After the troops had bolted down the E-Webs and the launchers had been distributed between the groups of clones, the comms officer and the others from the tent came up to the sergeant.
“Sergeant Tyris, its time.”
Tyris nodded at them and the men broadcasted that it was time to move out. Tyris hoisted his one hundred kilo pack onto his shoulder and grabbed the other two things that he had dropped when he had went off to do recon, his DC-17 with sniper and grenade launcher attachments along with the Krupx MiniMag shoulder firing missile launcher he had taken from one of the soldiers handing them out. As he walked, he hopped onto the back of a cargo speeder and did a check off all the weapons he carried. The Krupx launcher was set and the second pair of rockets was firmly set in its box latched to the side of the launcher. As he went over all his other weapons, the DC-17 with sniper and grenade launcher attachments, his vibroblades built into the lower arm pieces of his armor, the dual modified commando pistols hanging from the kama he wore, and finally, the small pair of holdout blasters in the back of his belt, firmly hugging his spine. He smiled to himself and felt that whatever those droids threw at him, he would come up standing. But as he looked at the troopers walking beside the speeder, his face lost that cheer. Those packs will slow them down, even at a full out run; a lot of men will die.
After nearly 10 minutes sitting on the back of the speeder, Tyris felt it slow down and he jumped off. The men were continuing to move forward past the speeders. He walked next to the convoy of speeders to the edge of the tree line where the men were standing around. The comms officer was standing out at the beginning of the tall grass and looked out at the clearing and then at Tyris.
“Orders?”
Tyros looked out at the men then switched his comm. Frequency to that all the other clones were using. A wave of voices immediately flooded into his helmet. “Are we going to go around that?”
“No way we can make it through here!”
“Quit crying clones, we are the GAR, we can make it through anything.”
Tyris said in his clear voice, “Clones, we go through our greatest challenge today. We must make it past this clearing and the droid fighters are almost here.”
The clones stopped talking and looked in his direction.
“Run in groups of four to five, no more. Run as fast as you can, if you see an injured comrade, pick him up and carry him along. No clones should die alone today. Now move out! I want the convoy to start thirty seconds after the first groups go out. Start running as soon as I say.” Tyris spoke.
The tree line was a silent hustle of troops spreading out into the groups and the only noise was of last minute weapons checks and the humming of rocket launchers.
Tyris stared out at the clearing one last time and said, “Mark.”
The clones ran from the tree line out towards the center of the clearing. Tyris was among them. He ran into the chest high grass with the rest of the three hundred men around him. He felt a heavy resistance running through it and he was forced to move at a fast walk when the resistance became too great for him to run through. He looked out at the other clones around him and then at the sky. In the distance, there was a constant humming that was getting closer. Thirty seconds had gone by and then fifty speeders burst out in a mad dash to the other side. Tyris opened a link to the comms officer and his voice instantly filled Tyris’s helmet.
“Where the hell is Dibs and his group? They’re supposed to be guarding our left rear flank and they’re not there!”
“Comms, this is Dibs, Vape has an eye on the fighters through the scope on his sniper rifle. They’re flooring it to get here; they’ll be here in twenty seconds and within range of the rockets in fifteen.”
“Thanks Dibs, I’ll forward this to Tyris.”
Tyris switched over the private frequency he and the comms officer used.
“Tyris, we got incoming in twenty.”
“Received.”
Tyris switched over to the main frequency, “We have droids incoming in twenty, prep those rocket launchers, and if you only have your rifle, three or four of you can concentrate your fire and take them down.”
Tyris quickly dropped down in the grass and waited for the little dots to appear on the horizon. He switched the view from the sight to his HUD and placed the sight up to his eye. He aimed the launcher in the direction the fighters were coming from and said on the comlink, “All launchers, fire on those fighters once you get a lock.” The frequency was instantly silenced by a clone saying, “Here they come!” Tyris zoomed in the scope and smiled as a grey circle slowly closed in around a black dot. He looked at the timer on the auto lock. Five seconds till a lock and three till those fighters start strafing. Tyris watched in horror as green dots started to rain down towards his men. Then all hell broke loose.

Subject: Re: Trails Of War Tue Apr 22, 2008 10:29 pm

Tyris watched as green lasers lanced into the ground a meter away from him. He watched as the grey circle finally ensnared the image of a fighter and turned red. Tyris pulled the trigger and his body shuddered with the double crack of dual rockets leaving the barrels. He quickly looked around and saw other missiles streaking away at the advancing cloud of fighters. He smiled as the first rocket he fired hit the target, bringing down its shield and then the second missile impacted and blew the fighter out of the sky. One down, forty-nine to go. He watched as other missiles made their marks and turned other fighters into falling clouds of debris.
Tyris looked around to watch other clones around him fire their rifles at several fighters than make a quick run farther out into the clearing. Unfortunately, every single clone that did that made themselves an easy target to those fighters’s strafing runs. He watched in sadness as three clones that had run out of cover get mowed down just five meters away from him. Tyris loaded his last two rockets and aimed at a nearby fighter. He fired the trigger as soon as the lock was confirmed and watched as the fighter crashed into the ground nearby. Tyris ran to the area where the three clones had died and checked for any survivors. None were alive. Tyris looked at what they had dropped and picked up three ion grenades and moved off to a better hiding spot.
When he found a shallow ditch with a view of the rest of the clearing, he bunkered down and prepared to take down some more fighters. He saw a clone twenty meters off get a hole blown in his chest that went all the way through. The clone fell to the ground and Tyris quickly unslung his DC-17 and switched out the fragmentation grenade in the launcher with an ion grenade. He looked for the Tri-fighter that had killed the clone and brought the rifle up and aimed ahead of the fighter. He pulled the trigger and watched the grenade overwhelm the fighter’s shield and electricity crawl over the hull of the fighter. Tyris smiled as he realized the electricity must have hit a main motivator in the engines because the fighter immediately started losing altitude and crashed into the ground on the far side of the clearing. Tyris took a look around him and saw that many parts of the clearing were on fire. Most of those fires have to be crashed fighters. How many men have died bringing them down?
Tyris looked up at the sky and saw roughly fifteen fighters still firing at his men and only three rocket launchers were still firing at them. Tyris decided to make a run for it and slung the DC-17 back over his shoulder. He immediately bolted from his hiding spot and ran as fast as he could towards the treeline. He had run fifty meters when he heard screaming. He was disgusted by what he saw. A lone clone was on the ground and his legs were ragged, bloody stumps with parts of bones protruding from the ends. He was screaming for a clone by the name of Des, and was reaching out towards the grass nearby. Tyris struggled to hold down the bile in his throat as he saw the bloodied remains of a clone in the grass.
Tyris knelt next to the screaming clone and said, “What’s your name clone?”
The clone stopped screaming and said in a pained voice, “Sil. Where’s Des? He’s not answering.”
Tyris said in a sad voice, “He’s dead Sil. I’m sorry but don’t worry, I’ll make sure you get out of here.
Tyris saw a clone medic running past and pulled him aside and pointed to the injured clone.
Tyris said, “Get him out of here, I’ll cover you.”
The medic grabbed the injured clone and slung him across his shoulders. Sil cried out in pain as the medic started running off to the treeline. Tyris unslung his DC-17 and grabbed another ion grenade and loaded it into the launcher. He saw a fighter turn towards the medic and fired his rifle at it. Many bolts hit the fighter’s shields and Tyris fired the launcher. The bolts had dropped the shields to a critical level and the ion grenade had little resistance when it exploded against it. The electricity surged over the hull and collected on the central cockpit area. It blew out the power coupling and most of the wiring. With a few lucky shots from his rifle, Tyris hit the droid controller area and caused the fighter to explode. With all his attention focused on the fighter, he missed the second and third starfighter aim at the medic and fire. Tyris turned around to see the ground around the medic fly into the air and the medic and his charge get vaporized by well over twelve laser blasts.
Tyris instantly was engulfed by anger and looked at the two fighters turning away for another run. He wanted them to be destroyed, but in the most horrible way for a droid. He stared at them and wanted every single wire to melt into puddles and for the droids to feel fear as they realized what was happening to their bodies. That would be a fitting destruction for them. Tyris looked around and saw two rocket launchers nearby next to dead clones. He picked them up and noticed that the clones hadn’t been able to fire the second group of missiles. Tyris dropped his DC-17 and hoisted both launchers onto his shoulders. He turned the right sight to the left side and put both sights to his visor. He smiled as he saw both fighters instantly become surrounded by a red circle. He pulled the triggers and was jolted by the force of the four missiles left the launchers. Both fighters were quickly turned to falling clouds of scrap and Tyris though, even these two fighters aren’t enough to avenge you both.
Tyris quickly dropped the launchers and loaded his last ion grenade into the launcher. Sil, this one is for you. He fired the grenade at the back of a passing starfighter on a strafing run, and quickly put the last of his clip, over ten shots, past the shields that the grenade had taken out and slagged the engines. The fighter crashed into the ground and erupted into a ball of flame. Tyris had just enough time to turn to look up at the fighter coming at him and then he felt the ground around him fly into the air and his world went dark.

Subject: Re: Trails Of War Tue May 06, 2008 7:09 pm

Chapter 2
A New Master

3 Days after Geonosis

No one would talk to him and say where his master was. It was time to talk to the people who couldn’t refuse to talk to him, the council. He would start his plan in an hour, well into the meeting, and then he would get his answers. The young fifteen year old was determined to find out where his master was. Daylo remembered what had happened just three hours ago. He was running down the massive main hall towards Master Yoda’s room. He opened the master’s room to find it disorganized and empty, then quickly closed the door and bolted past several startled Jedi Knights to the stairs. He was halfway up the stairs when he saw his target just pass out of sight. He quickly used the force to get a burst of speed and exited the stairwell.
Yoda was just ten meters away when Daylo yelled, “Master Yoda!”
Master Yoda stopped and turned around towards the voice.
Daylo caught up to him and said, “Where is my master, where is he?”
Master Yoda stared at the youth. Daylo suddenly realized how foolish he must look. His hair wasn’t combed, his robe was wrinkled in several areas, and he had bags under his eyes from combing the transmissions in the communications center for news of his master.
Yoda’s eyes were filled with sympathy when he said, “Tell you, I can’t.”
Tears came to Daylo’s eyes when he heard that. He watched as Master Yoda turned around a walked into a turbolift heading to the council chamber. Daylo turned away and hung his head down in sadness as he walked beck to his room. All the way, he planned how he would get his answers. Now it was time to implement that plan. Daylo grabbed his lightsaber and tears came to his eyes. Ryl told me that he that he would check on the design today, but he never showed up. He never broke a promise before, why would he start now with the most important part of my training?
Daylo crept out of his room and walked to the nearest turbolift. He waited impatiently for the turbolift to rise to the top level of the spire. When he left the lift, he stared at the anteroom for the council chamber. The round room had only two doors in it. One lead into the council chamber and the other to the turbolift. Daylo pulled out his lightsaber and stared out it. It was a black cylinder decorated with the design of a Tatooine krayt dragon in pure silver. The top of it was, unlike with most lightsabers, a cone. Daylo prayed that the durindfire he was using as a crystal would work and activated the blade. Instead of a long blade of light coming out, a silver bending stream of light appeared.
Daylo smiled at his creation. The blade was a whip, but the blade was ill suited for its designed task. Daylo turned the pressed the tiny oval gem that acted at the dragon’s eye and heard it click down then pop back up in its original place. The blade shortened slightly then straightened into a bar. Daylo tried to muffle a laugh as he twirled the blade and then slashed it diagonally into the door leading to the council chamber. The lightsaber that Daylo had worked on that had taken over three months to build, two months more than the standard lightsaber, cut through the door with no resistance. The bottom of the door fell away and Daylo entered the room.

* * *

When the council members had heard the lightsaber outside the door, they had stop talking and stared at the door. When they saw the silver blade pierce the door, most of the members had stood up, activated their lightsabers, and moved into defensive postures. When they saw the padawan walk through, most deactivated the lightsabers and stared in confusion at what he had done. All but two of the masters were standing, Master Yoda and Master Windu, who sat in their chairs motioning for the rest of the masters to sit and watch as the boy walked up to Master Yoda.

* * *

Daylo pointed the blade at Master Yoda and said, “It has been two days since all the jedi returned but no one will talk to me about where Master Ryl is!”
Master Windu picked up a datapad, brought up a file and sent the datapad floating through the air to Daylo. Daylo grabbed it and read in horror at the title of the file. JEDI LOSSES AT GEONOSIS. Daylo deactivated the lightsaber, slipped it into his pocket, and opened the file and stared at Master Yoda. Yoda nodded and pointed at an empty chair beside him. Daylo sat in the chair and started to read the long list of fallen jedi. Daylo brought up information on the deaths of some of the jedi, many of them were friends that he had known his whole life, and tears rolled down his cheeks as he read some of the more gruesome deaths. When he reached the bottom of the list, he saw the name he dreaded to read. RYL NIMB, KILLED IN ACTION. Daylo selected his name and read the information concerning his death. DIED IN THE ARENA PROTECTING INJURED JEDI KNIGHT MAS CAL. Daylo closed the file and looked at the council members. Most had their heads bowed in remembrance and sadness. A shadow washed over him and he looked up at the bald jedi standing over him. Mace Windu knelt down beside him and said, “Would you like to know the details.”
Daylo looked at him, tears rolling down his cheeks and said, “Yes”
Windu paused for a moment then grabbed the datapad and open a holocam. A large image appeared into the center of the room. A bloody and severely injured human was on a bed and identified himself as Mas Cal.
Windu said, “This is how we know what happened. Cal told us the story and we recorded it before he died.” Windu looked at the other members and said to Daylo, “Only Master Yoda and I have heard it.”
The hologram of Cal turned to look at a person beyond the view of the hologram and said, “We were cut off from the ring in the center by eight destroyer droids.” Cal gasped for another breath. “I was injured blocking several of the bolts and Ryl protected me…” Cal stopped for several seconds and pain crept across his face. “Ryl just kept fighting them. He cut three in half with his lightsaber and deflected several bolts back at them and blew two droids heads off...” The pain on Cal’s face increased and his breath came in ragged gasps. “It wasn’t enough though… The remaining three just kept firing relentlessly and… and…” Tears appeared in his eyes and rolled down his cheeks. “They tore him… tore him apart. They just killed him… even when he was dead they just kept firing into his body! I passed out and the droids must have thought I died, that’s why they left me.” Cal faced away and said, “Tell his padawan how his master fought bravely to save me…” Then Cal’s heart rate dropped to zero and the video ended. Mace grabbed the datapad and shut off the recording. He looked at Daylo and the expression of great grief on his face. Daylo then walked out of the room and headed to the turbolift. When it showed up, he walked into it and headed to his room. When the lift stopped at his level, he got off and walked down the now empty hall towards his room. When he made it to his room, he opened the door to enter it and locked the door behind him. He placed his robe on a shelf on the wall, walked over to his bed, and passed out.

Subject: Re: Trails Of War Tue May 06, 2008 7:10 pm

4 Days after Geonosis

Daylo woke up in the infirmary. He looked beside him and saw a change of clothes on the table beside the bed. He looked around him and a empty bacta tank in the corner of the ward where he lay. Seven other beds were in the room and they were empty. The sheets were perfectly laid out and the entire room smelled sterile. When Daylo grabbed his clothes, he saw a piece of flimsiplast peeking out from under one corner. When he reached out to grab it, he saw a square impression underneath his tunic. When he pulled it out, his eyes widened in recognition at the face in the holo. It was a picture of his parents. His parents had been jedi and had died in a failed assassination attempt against a senator when he was three. When he put the holo down and read the note, he was confused as to what it meant. It was a message telling him to get dressed and meet Master Windu in the training center.
When Daylo had gotten dressed into his customary jedi robes, he went back to his room to fetch the things he usually brought with him when he went into the training center. He grabbed his jedi credit, a gift he had received when his master had been given the rank of master, but when he looked for his lightsaber, he noticed it was missing. He looked for the lightsaber for close to ten minutes before he gave up and headed towards the main training area.

* * *

Meanwhile, as Daylo walked down to the training rooms, Mace Windu was talking with an elderly human jedi knight named Jakis Van at a table in the lounge of the training center. The woman was a skilled fighter and Mace thought that she would be an excellent teacher for Daylo.
Mace looked at the woman and said, “I know you lost your padawan at Geonosis and I head that you wanted a second one. I have the perfect candidate for you, a boy lost his master and I think you will like him.”
The woman replied, “Let me see him fight.”
Mace gave her a wide smile and pointed at a large viewscreen in the wall and said, “I have it all arranged. The boy should be arriving shortly.”

* * *

Daylo walked passed and the doors closed behind him. Daylo looked around at the spacious room he had walked into. It had a long wide hallway leading to over twenty rooms were a jedi could practice with their lightsaber. The walls were white, unadorned, and cases with pictures of jedi holding lightsabers lined the walls. In many of the cases, the lightsabers of the long dead jedi were set on a stand with the jedi’s name under it. He walked up to the desk and looked at the droid behind it and said, “Master Windu sent for me.” The droid nodded and grabbed a box from under the desk, gave it to Daylo, then pointed at a door towards the end of the hall. Daylo walked down the hall and looked at several of the doors as he passed. The sounds behind the doors told him that several jedi were fighting each other behind them and the others rang out with the sound of lightsabers deflecting bolts from training remotes. He stopped in front of the door the droid had pointed at and hesitantly walked through it.
The room was white with eight small square doors with two on each side. There were also three large rectangular doors with one on each of the opposite three walls. There was a large square painted on the floor in the center of the room and a table was beside the door. Daylo went over to the table, placed the box on it, and opened it. In it was a piece of flimsiplast and his lightsaber. On the flimsiplast was a note from Master Windu. It said that a test of his abilities had been arranged and that he wished him good luck. Daylo closed the box and walked out to the center of the square and activated his lightsaber. As soon as he walked out into the center of the square, the door opposite the door he came in opened and a training droid, a droid curiously similar to a battle droid except thicker and with a circular head, walked out. Daylo smiled at it but it quickly fell away as the droid, unlike the other droids that used training sabers that delivered shocks, activated a real lightsaber build into the wrist.

* * *

Jakis stared in confusion and wonder at the silver energy whip. Who trained this boy? And where did he get that thing? The items needed to make one of those are really rare, let alone the plans. She then was engulfed in fear as she saw the droid activate an actual lightsaber.
Jakis stared at Windu and demanded, “What were you thinking? The boy could die.”
Windu returned her stare and calmly replied, “Just watch.”
Jakis looked back at the screen just as the boy struck at the machine. The droid hit the stream of color angled it away. Jakis closed her eyes and waited for the scream of pain. Instead, she heard the crash of metal hitting the floor and she opened her eyes in disbelief. The boy had expected the droid to parry the stream and had snapped it so it angled back and cut completely through the droids waist. How did he do that? There is no way he could have known the droid would block like that. Jakis turned quickly to see Windu chuckle softly then she turned back to the screen.

* * *

Daylo smiled as he walked up to the remains of the droid. That was easy. Wonder what else Windu has planned. Then the other two doors opened and two droids walked out and activated lightsabers. This will be difficult. I hope this works. One droid moved around and faced his front while the other moved behind him. The two droids charged him at the same time and Daylo swung his energy whip at the lightsaber in front of him. The blade wrapped around the lightsaber and Daylo moved to his left and pulled. The droid was knocked off its feet and the other droid stopped to reassess his opponent. Daylo quickly snapped the whip at the droid on the ground and it was destroyed as the whip cut through the torso. Then the other droid finally made its move. It moved the lightsaber in a thrust that would not allow Daylo to grab it. Daylo quickly pressed the “eye” and his blade became a straight beam and he brought it down in an arc to deflect the blade and push it away from him. The droid was knocked off balance and Daylo finished it off by cutting its arm off and pushing the blade into its chest. With the last of the droids dispatched, he was too late to realize the danger pushing in on him from all around him.

* * *

Jakis stared at the impossible feat the boy had completed. She turned to Mace and said, “How much experience does he have with a lightsaber?”
Mace laughed and said. “Considering who his master was, I would say that he has been training in lightsaber techniques for well over ten years.”
Jakis stared in disbelief at the statement that Mace had just told her. She stared at the view screen and the new predicament that the boy had walked into. This boy is a natural with that energy whip. And that modification! He must have been working on the blade for over three months! I will talk to him later and find out how he did that. The boy would be a perfect pupil. Regardless of how this fight turns out, I must be allowed to train him. Mace watching her expression and smiled at the obvious reaction that the boy gave her. He then turned to the viewscreen to see how Daylo would finish the test.

* * *

Daylo looked around him at the eight training remotes around him and pressed the gem to turn the blade back to the whip. How did I not notice those things? These things have been set to their max setting. One blast won’t kill me, but they will definitely hurt. Daylo moved into a defensive stance and waited. He saw a remote float just within reach of the whip and he ran toward it and snapped the whip. The remote was cleaved in half and fell to the ground. He continued until he reached the corner and turned around. The remaining seven moved out of the way of the whip and huddled closer together.
Daylo realized the flaw the remotes had made and started swinging the whip in a circle in front of him. The remotes fired and the bolts bounced harmlessly away from the barrier he had made. Daylo took three steps forward and cut two more of the remotes down before they could move away from his whip. Three down and five to go. Three of the five remaining remotes moved together while the other two moved to his sides. Daylo opened up to the force and prepared to take out the remote to his left. Just as the remote fired, Daylo used the force to push it into the three clustering in front of him, knocking several of them into the walls. The remote on his left got his full attention and was quickly destroyed with a crack of his whip. The four remotes that he had crashed together were severely disoriented. They were all destroyed before any of them had been able to fire a shot at him.

* * *

Jakis looked at Mace and smiled, “He is a remarkable boy.”
Mace looked at her and said, “Do you wish to train the boy?”
Jakis looked deep into his eyes and said, “Yes, I will, but one last question. Who trained the boy?”
Sadness washed over Mace’s face and he said, “Ryl Nimb. The boy’s name is Daylo Irona.”
Recognition instantly filled Jakis’s voice as she said, “Oh. So this was his apprentice.”
Mace got up, opened the door, and said to her, “Ready to meet him?”

* * *

Daylo was exhausted and was resting against the wall when the door opened and he saw Master Windu standing with an elderly woman.
The women looked down at him and said, “Hello Daylo, my name is Jakis Van. I’m your new master.”