The Battle of Ryloth

[5ame_heart]

The role of the 501st in the liberation of Ryloth has been mostly one of orbital support, but Captain Rex has his eye on the boys from Domino Squad.  He's assigned Echo and Fives to the 91st Mobile Reconnaissance Corps for the operation.

According to Rex, his reasoning is that as neither Fives or Echo can pilot worth a damn, they'd better make themselves useful in the ground assault. Echo is optimistically convinced this attachment to an elite Recon Unit is serving as field training for eventual promotion to ARC-Troopers. As Rex has been friendly with them since Rishi and has continually expressed his respect for them as soldiers, Fives doesn't have a reason to disagree.

A major difference between the 91st and the 501st is that the men of the 91st like and respect their Jedi General with the sort of fondness and respect that comes with reliable, understandable and well thought out plans - General Windu seems to like and respect them back, to the extent of their lives as equal to his own, and as highly as they value each other. Skywalker is the same, of course, but the 501st are generally of the opinion that a healthy culture of talking back is a key part of letting your General exactly what you think of showy recklessness.

But one way they match, of course, is that all plans are lucky if they last five minutes' contact with the enemy.

The 91st are engaged with the droid army in the approach to the capital city of Lessu. Ryloth is all mesas and gorges around here; it's hot, much drier than the jungles where they staged earlier engagements, and the ground has a bad habit of crumbling under one's feet - especially when hit by stray blaster bolts.

Fives is right by Echo's side one second, and the next he finds himself slipping perilously down a near vertical face into a gorge, sandy rocks racing past him to the sound of his name being yelled by his brother above. He shouts in annoyance and in shock, and then when his foot makes contact with a rock a few feet down, with pain. 

The rocky nature of this planet acts to his advantage, Fives realises. He's sliding rather than falling, and is able to holster his blaster in time to grab another rock, which jerks his shoulder violently but stops his descent before his fingers slip and he falls again. The Force obviously has plans for him because he's able to combine what purchase he can get with what obstructions there are to turn a death fall into a painful tumble into shadow.

Eventually Fives lands hard on his feet at the bottom of a crevasse deep enough that the fighting above is only distant flashes of light, and next to the less fortunate body of a trooper who turns out to be CT-89-2874 - Fives doesn't know him and so doesn't know what his name was.

He stands up slowly, his legs screaming from the landing, his headache informing him that he may have hit that part of him on the way down. His armor is more than scratched - some of his plates have broken in clear shards, and he's entirely lost one of his  He keys his wrist comm.

"Echo? Sarge? Anyone?"

But there's no signal. And there's no reason to come look for him either, so as far as Echo and the others is concerned, CT-27-5555 is one more casualty of the Battle for Ryloth.

He leans against the rocky wall, and considers his options. 

And that's when he hears something.

Comments

[for_everyone]

Hera stays quiet for a short time after this, as she keeps moving forward, turning into a wider canyon that's burning with sunlight, but keeping close to the canyon wall. Her head jerks a couple times as she walks, but she doesn't stray from her path.

Then, as she's still facing ahead, she says, "I'm sorry. My brother died, too."

[5ame_heart]

Fives pauses at the entrance to the canyon, looking around them for any signs of danger before he catches up with his guide.

"Sorry to hear that," he says quietly. He's used to death, naturally, but Cutup being killed by an eel while trying to secure the outpost, and a Twi'lek child, are worlds apart.

From behind her he reaches a hand towards her, almost like he's going to touch her on the shoulder, and thinks better of it - she wouldn't want sympathy from a random clone, after all.

[for_everyone]

Hera turns as he's reaching toward her, though he'll likely be withdrawing his hand by the time she sees it. She glances up to him, uncertain, at first assuming that he'd meant for her to slow down or stop. But then something makes her whole body snap forward again.

"Oh wait -" she hisses, before launching into a soft-footed dash along the canyon wall and then, suddenly, throwing herself down on the ground against it.

And then she's yanking something by its scaly tail out of a burrow at the base of the canyon wall.

[5ame_heart]

Fives starts forward, the command to 'wait' only giving him the faintest of pauses, and when she throws herself on the ground he does so too, his fingers already touching her ankle in the first motions towards grabbing her leg and pulling her under him so his armor can protect them both.

But when her hand disappears into the burrow he stops, and when she pulls out an animal, he feels like a full fledged idiot.

He pulls back until he's sitting against the canyon wall, and lets out a laugh.

"Let me guess - good eating?"

[for_everyone]

Hera doesn't speak or move in response to Fives, even when he touches her ankle, until after she's yanked out the lizard with a harsh tug, and then in a very quick motion, grabs its head with her free hand and twists. Her speed isn't for nothing, as the lizard's claws are sharp and carve deep into the ground, but it goes limp at once, and she lets out a breath.

"I'm sorry -" Her own voice is sheepish as she sits up and starts to stand, the now third dead lizard dangling from her hand. "They move so fast..."

Hera relaxes at his laugh, even smiling briefly before she answers. "I can't get the bigger ones by myself, but it helps."

Even a small gruuvan lizard means a day she doesn't have to take from the fighters' food, after all.

[5ame_heart]

Fives shakes his head, and stands slowly - there are bruises and tender spots he's just aggravated and wishes he hadn't been so quick to dive to protect her.

But he absolutely will do it again, and he knows it.

"Nice reflexes though," he allows. "Could have taken you for a Jedi for a second."

[for_everyone]

Hera looks down to tie the lizard next to the others at her waist.

"Because Jedi are fast?"

She's seen a few, even one pretty close up, but the only other thing Hera really knows about Jedi is that they lead the clone troops and carry those shiny 'lightsabers.' Everything else is secondhand or old stories, about other Twi'leks being taken from Ryloth to join them, or warriors who could move mountains with their hands.

[5ame_heart]

"Super fast," Fives says. "Crazy magic fast. Faster than a blaster bolt, if you're lucky enough to be standing behind one."

[for_everyone]

Hera nods, conscientiously taking in this information before she says, "I'm not that fast." In case there was any confusion on that point.

She slips back along the canyon wall, briefly glancing back up at the sky.

"I won't do it again," she says, as she looks back down. "Three is good, especially if the droids, um -

With another glance back at him, "- if you make them leave."

[5ame_heart]

"We'll make them leave."

He says this with not the slightest doubt. It's what they do, after all. "With help from your people, of course."

He says not a word about her clarification, except to remind himself that perhaps hyperbole is just for clones.

He slips back behind her, following her carefully, but frequently glancing up, as the canyon is wider now, and there's more fighting to catch a glimpse of.

And it looks like it's getting closer to the edge.

"I don't like this," he muses out loud. "Feel exposed."

[for_everyone]

It does occur to Hera now that Fives is both bigger than her, and more what a droid would be looking out for than she is. She presses her lips together, then lifts an arm, pointing ahead to a narrower canyon that branches from the wide one, about 100 meters ahead.

"It's that one next, I don't know about trying the others..."

There are several other canyon paths, narrow and wide, that branch off, but Hera doesn't know them all, and doesn't want to turn down one and then have to turn back.

[5ame_heart]

"We'll go for that one then," Fives says. He looks where she's pointing, makes a mental note of where it is, and then looks up again. It's not too much bad at the moment, but the biggest problem is that stray blaster bolts keep hitting the canyon wall.

He makes more of a point now of staying close to her, ready to reach out and grab her if he needs to, and letting the spatial awareness of her physical presence - which is complicated by the double handicap of no force senstivity and being human - lead him. His visual attention stays mostly pointing upwards.

"Keep walking. We should be okay."

[for_everyone]

Hera nods, resuming her pace toward the canyon ahead.

But she does notice that how close his pace stays to hers now. And maybe because of his gesture earlier, or because of how quickly he'd grabbed for her when she'd jumped for the lizard, Hera offers her right hand back to him.

Her footsteps don't slow as she does it, there's only a quick glance back.

[5ame_heart]

Taking her hand in a usual way would require putting himself in a position where he would need to drop her hand in order to move, so Fives gives her hand a little push to reject the offer, but settles his hand on her shoulder instead. That way he can push her away, pull her towards him, or just drop her and draw his blaster at any instant. But he nods when she glances back to him.

He's not sure if she needs reassurance like civilian kids are meant to, or if she's thinking he needs to be lead, or if she knows that he's thinking of keeping her safe. Or maybe all three.

They've only gone a few meters when he uses that physical contact, pulls he back sharply as a bolt above their heads dislodges a piece of the wall and a chunk of rock tumbles down to the ground ahead of them.

[for_everyone]

Hand or shoulder doesn't much difference for her. But Hera knows a little of what it's like to want to keep a grip on someone.

And she doesn't resist when he does pull her back. Her arms move instinctively to cover her head, and she flattens as much as she can back into the canyon wall.

Her arms lower as the sound of rock fades, and she tilts her head up. "Do you think that was at us?"

[5ame_heart]

"No," he says, unintentionally short. He's pleased, however, that she reacted so well, and gives her a pat on the shoulder again to urge her forward.

"If they'd seen us, we'd know. Just a stray bolt, which will come more often as the fighting gets closer."

Nevertheless, he draws his blaster in his spare hand.

"I say 'run,' you go for our target," he says after a moment's though. "'Cover' - you run for the nearest passage on this wall. 'Down' - like you just did, but on the floor. Okay?"

[for_everyone]

Hera nods and says, with earnest reassurance -

"It's okay, I do it all the time."

[5ame_heart]

"Yeah, me too."

But he's a soldier and this is what he was made for. And she's a child and Fives' very existence is so that she shouldn't have to do it at all, let alone all the time.

They'll get those karking clankers off this planet if he dies doing it.

He nods forward, indicating she should lead the way, keeping his eyes up on the noise above them.

[for_everyone]

And Hera moves ahead, still keeping close to the wall, stopping only when another branch in the maze of the canyons turned off from it, where she quickly looked down the deserted path before darting from one side of the opening to the other.

As they approach the path they're heading toward, Hera glances back again, not just to Fives but behind him, to check that nothing is coming up behind them. For now, at least, the way they've come looks deserted, too.

[5ame_heart]

Fives still has his eyes up for the most part, occasionally glancing down and around, but it seems for now the biggest risk is from up. The dust clouds are clearly visible now, and occasionally he catches sight of a helmet of a droid or...

... the droid is too far away to make out much detail, but they don't have much detail to make out anyway, and Fives is familiar enough with that movement and their irritating grating voice that he can practically hear it say "hey..." as it starts to point.

"Run," says Fives.

[for_everyone]

Hera doesn't hesitate - she knows the sound of the droid's voice and knows to stay away from it. Without looking back, at least not at first, she bolts into the nearest offshoot among the canyon walls, sliding into the shadow and trying to keep her footsteps light even as she runs.

But as she moves, she does also reach for her pouch.

[5ame_heart]

Fives stays still as Hera runs away, drawing himself up to make his large white body as obvious a contrast to Hera's little green fleeing form as possible. He watches the droid: the stupid thing takes a full second to process what its seeing, to decide that a clone is a target, and then to decide to aim.

Fives then fires his pistol - it doesn't have the range to get the droid but he fires it at a rock on the canyon floor about three meters out from the canyon wall and halfway between where he is and the side passage Hera originally pointed out. The rock disintegrates, throwing up a cloud of red dust that in theory should block sight.

At the same instant, he runs - the droid's blaster bolt makes a pitfully weak impact with the wall where his head had been - and races along the canyon wall in long strides towards the waiting passageway, into which he slips sideways, his blaster up and ready as he peers outwards to see if he's still in their sights

[for_everyone]

Turning back toward the opening she'd come through, Hera crouches to the canyon floor and pulls the blaster from her pouch. As quickly as she'd snapped the lizard's neck, her hands run over the blaster, checking its charge and setting, only briefly glancing down as she does.

She doesn't move when she hears the blasterfire, but stays silent and motionless, listening for footsteps, or the mechanical buzz of the droid's limbs.

The latter comes first - unlike Hera's careful steps, droids buzz and their feet crunch noisely on the rocky soil of Ryloth. It's slow at first, but from the echoes along the canyon walls, Hera can hear it moving to enter the wider stretch they'd just been moving through.

[5ame_heart]

Fives peers out - the droid has emerged into the larger passage he just left and is making a direct line to whre it had last seen him. This at least gives Fives time to regroup and secure the safety of the kid...

The kid who is not to be seen.

Forcedammit.

He mentally replays the last few seconds - he said run and she ran but... she went to the nearest passageway, not their target route. This means:

He checks. The droid is approaching the remains of the rock he blasted and this means that while it's still too far away for his pistol, it's nearer the passage he's pretty sure he saw the kid flee down.

Fives steps back out.

"HEY! RUSTBUCKET! OVER HERE!

[for_everyone]

She waits against the wall, blaster toward where the droid would pass. Running again only seemed more likely to attract attention now.

But the droid is distracted by Fives' call, and passes by without noticing.

Hera waits for it to pass, but then darts to the wall across, and then slowly back the way she had run, listening to Fives and the droid.