Spike emerged at the top of the stairs and looked out across the landscape of the planet, the fires that were burning across its surface, and the ships that threatened to blot out the very sky beneath their immense numbers.
“Which way are the cannons?” Spike shouted back, having trouble making himself heard over the roar of battle raging across the surface of the planet.
“There sir!” A soldier shouted, pointing off to the side. “About two kilometres away.”
“Good.” Spike grinned, before jumping forward, using the force to make sure that he landed on the ruined roof of the next building. “Come on!” He yelled back.
The soldiers behind him looked across him at as if he was crazy, looking across the gap. Grinning across at Spike, Tarhal grabbed one of the soldiers.
“Let me help.” He smiled, before throwing the soldier across the gap to the waiting arms of Spike.
“It’s easy, now let’s go.” Spike chuckled, putting the soldier down.
One by one, the soldiers jumped across the gap, most making it easily, while one or two slipped and had to be hauled up by their friends and comrades in arms, until it was just Corinna on the other side.
“Come on Corinna.” Spike gestured.
“Umm. You know how some people have weaknesses?” She said weakly.
“Heights?” Spike asked.
“Yeah.” She nodded slowly.
“Oh come on, it’s not that far.” Spike said, jumping back across the building. “You can do it, just watch.”
Jumping across the building again, Spike started to sing, jumping back to Corinna before jumping away again.
“It's not very far, just move your little rump, you can make it if you try with a hop, skip and jump”
“A Song? We don't have time for this.” Asho rolled her eyes.
“A hop, skip and jump, Just move your little rump, A hop, skip and jump, A hop, skip and jump, A hop, skip and jump, A hop skip and jump, A hop skip and jump!” As Spike neared the end of the song, he continued to get faster and faster, until finally Corinna grabbed hold of him, stopping him jumping around.
“Stop! Just, stop, singing. I’ll go.” She said exasperatedly. “Just don’t sing again, please.”
“Alright alright, I get what you’re saying.” He said. “Now, get moving, we need to get to the cannons.”
Taking a deep breath, Corinna sprinted towards the gap, and letting out a scream, jumped across the gap, sprawling on the other side, but making it none the less. Hopping over the gap, Spike helped her up, before moving to the forefront of the troops.
“Come on then, let’s go!” He bellowed, before setting off at a run.
Quickly, the group made their way across the buildings, vaulting piles of rubble and jumping across small gaps on their journey towards the cannons. Luckily for them, it seemed like the first gap that they had crossed was the largest they would have to traverse, and eventually, they reached a tall building overlooking a large open square. Spike let a breath that he didn’t know he had been holding hiss through his teeth as he thanked whatever was looking out for them that they hadn’t lost anyone, or been attacked.
Looking forward, Spike could make out three large spherical objects with short, stubby barrels jutting out of the top, alone with other larger barrels. Nodding to himself, Spike knew he had found the cannons that he was looking for. Unfortunately, it did not look like he was the only one.
Mandalorians were swarming towards the cannons, blood still slick on their blades from where they had cut down the remainder of the third company. It was clear from the weight of fire coming back at them that there were only a few defenders left. As Spike watched, the cannons roared as they fired upwards at an unseen target.
“Do you have a plan Spike?” Tarhal asked, moving beside the dragon.
“Yeah, I have a plan.” Spike said, not sounding convincing in any way.
“Care to tell us?” Zule asked.
“I have a plan.” He said, holding his hands up defensively. “I am capable of coming up with a plan.”
“I’m sure you are. Any time you would like to…” Asho began, but was cut off when Spike suddenly jumped from the building, igniting his Lightsaber and plunging it into the building, using his weight to pull it down at a controlled but fast descent.
“…let us in on it.” She finished weakly, looking after the dragon.
“Did he just jump off a fifty story building?” Corinna deadpanned.
“Yes. Yes he did.” One of the soldiers nodded.
***
Spike grunted as his arm took the weight of his body, violently shaking it as he suddenly went from an uncontrolled free-fall to a slower controlled descent. He was so glad that his idea had worked, and the Lightsaber had actually resisted cutting into the building to slow him down. He didn’t much fancy falling this distance. The theoretical knowledge had been solid enough though, and now he had practical evidence that it worked.
Letting out a roar, Spike ripped the Lightsaber out of the wall, dropping the last few stories and rolling as he hit the ground. In an instant, Spike was back on his feet, Lightsabers in hands, one blade held along his arm while the other jutted forwards, his feet pounding at the ground as he sprinted towards the unaware Mandalorians.
In a moment, Spike was among the Mandalorians, hacking with both arms as he carved his way through the unaware soldiers. Finally, one turned to face him, raising a large sword to intercept the dragons downwards strike. Undeterred, Spike smashed his head into the Mandalorians helmet, using his taller stature to make the blow hit even harder.
As the blow struck, the helmets visor cracked, the Mandalorian wearing it falling back clutching his helmet as blood began to seep out of the cracks. Slashing forwards with his Lightsaber, Spike ended the man’s pain, before leaping forward, reaching the no-man’s land that had opened up between the two forces.
Vaulting the barricade, Spike turned and stared across at the Mandalorians in a momentary lull in the combat. They were wavering, Spikes intervention catching them off guard. For a moment, it looked like they were going to charge again, and Spike readied his weapons in anticipation.
Suddenly, a flurry of shots erupted from behind the Mandalorian lines, slamming into their backs and cutting them down in large swathes. Glancing back, Spike could see the others charging into the rear of the Mandalorian lines, and finally breaking the resolve they had.
Still staying in formation, the Mandalorians began to move backwards, fighting their way clear of the square and halting at the entrance. They held the advantage now, and while getting in for them would be hard, it would be worse getting out. For all intents and purposes, the Republic forces were trapped.
Turning from the sight of the Mandalorians, Spike turned to look at the garrison that was defending the cannons before he had arrived. There were barely two dozen of them, all of whom looked old and frail, their weapons shining from obvious disuse before today. It did not take a military genius to figure out that these men were not true soldiers, but were an honour guard, made to look good on a parade, not in battle. And yet, they were still here, they had stood when they could have easily turned tail and run. That was courage if ever Spike had seen it. It was easy to be brave when you had proper training, but it was another matter to be brave when you know you don’t stand a chance.
“Who commands here?” Spike called out, looking at the soldiers.
“Sir. That would be me.” An old woman limped over, saluting as she rasped her greeting. “Captain Rimler, third Telosian Honour Guard on a cultural exchange to the capital.”
“Padawan Spike.” Spike replied. “Is everyone ok?”
“Ninety Eight percent casualties in under an hour. No.” She deadpanned.
“You’ve got reinforcement now.” Came the voice of Corinna.
Turning around, Spike saw the Jedi walking towards him, as well as the hand that impacted with the side of his face as she slapped him, hard.
“Nice to see you to Corinna.” Spike grunted, massaging his face.
“You idiot, you could have told us what you were going to do.” She fumed.
“I guess. How did you all get down so quickly?” He asked.
“The stairs. Maybe if you had waited for a second before jumping, you would have realised there was an easier way down.” She shot back.
“But that wouldn’t have been nearly as awesome.” Spike reasoned.
“Keep doing things like that, and one day you’ll find yourself splattered across the ground.”
“Maybe not.” Spike said, shifting his back uncomfortably as he felt his wings shift beneath his armour. “Anyway, knowing me I’d probably miss.”
“Miss the ground?” Corinna dead panned.
“Yeah, that’s how you learn to fly, didn’t you know? You fall and forget to hit the ground.” Spike chuckled.
“Something’s wrong with your head Spike, seriously.” Corinna said exasperatedly, giving up on trying to talk some sense into the dragon.
“Yeah, quite possibly.” Spike agreed. “Where are the others?”
“The soldiers are strengthening the lines, the others are busy trying to help the wounded.” Corinna replied.
“Get them, and any soldiers who look like they are in charge and meet me at the main cannon there.” Spike said, pointing towards the central Ion cannon.
“Why?” Corinna asked.
“Because we need to figure out what we’ve got to help here.” Spike pointed out, before turning and walking to the cannon.
***
“Beauty isn’t she?” a man asked, wearing the armoured jumpsuit and helmet that marked him as a gunner for the cannons.
“She is.” Spike nodded, looking up at the massive Ion cannon.
Spike had managed to arrange for the commander of the battery, one Commander Herdsman, to come down and attend the meeting, something he had been reluctant to do as it would involve leaving his post, but he had done it all the same. He was young and wiry, his bedraggled dirty blonde hair falling haphazardly over his eyes from underneath his helmet.
“Yep, this here is one of the finest orbital defence batteries this side on the planet, we could put a hole clean through a battleship every sixty seconds.” Herdsman said with pride, before deflating slightly. “Well, we could if we were getting any firing coordinates from command. Shooting blind isn’t easy you know.”
“Shooting with sight isn’t much easier.” Spike pointed out. He had tried using a blaster once or twice, but he had never quite got the hang of it. He preferred his Lightsabers anyway.
“Spike.” Came the low growl of a Wookie, and the Dragon turned to see Tarhal leading a small group towards him, the rest of Nexu clan included.
“Tarhal.” Spike nodded. “Is this everyone?”
“Anyone who is in charge.” Tarhal confirmed.
“Good. Now, first things first, what are we looking at in ways of supplies?” Spike asked.
“Before you arrived, enough food and water to sustain my own troops for a week without compromising combat effectiveness. Now you’re all here, a day, two at most.” Rimler said quickly.
“Don’t look at me.” Herdsman said, holding his hands up. “We don’t get stocks of rations in the cannons, just enough to last the day before we rotate of duty.”
“Right, so we’ve got a two day window.” Spike mused. “Let’s hope the invasion doesn’t last that long. What are we looking at in defensive terms?”
“A few walls, some old turrets that look like they’ve burnt out their firing mechanisms and some old droids that look rusted together. Hardly an all conquering army.” Asho said quickly. “But the forty second are itching for a fight. They want revenge for Reachers’ company.”
“I expect they do.” Zule nodded.
“Herdsman, what communications equipment do you have?” Spike asked, turning to the commander.
“Enough to get into contact with Republic high command, but the channels are all full to bursting with cries for help. We can’t get through.” He replied.
“Keep trying, let them know that we are under heavy attack and have little in the way of supplies.” Spike ordered.
“Sirs!” an old soldier, a member of the Telosian Honour guard, shouted, running up and saluting hastily. “We’ve got movement from the Mandalorians.” He panted.
“Blast. I thought we’d have more time.” Spike cursed, before setting off at a run back towards the front line.
***
Spike threw himself to the ground as a blast of laser fire slashed through the air that his head had occupied only a moment before. Springing back to his feet, Spike used the force to help him spring up, bringing his fist into the face of a Krath soldier, before igniting his Lightsaber and blocking a blow from a large axe, cutting the haft in two, and leaving the Mandalorian wielding it weaponless.
The battle was chaotic, Mandalorians and Krath pouring into the square from one side and crashing against the barricades erected by the Republic forces, the soldiers crouching behind it firing into their ranks. Only the five Jedi had ventured past the barricade, hacking their way through the ranks of enemy as they pressed forward to engage the gun line.
Plunging forward, Spike fell in amongst the enemies, one Lightsaber held high while the other guarded his body from attack. One Krath War Droid swung at him, but he ducked under the arc of the short sword and stabbed upward, impaling the droid through the jaw, the Lightsaber slicing through until it came out the top of its head. He freed his Lightsaber, ripping it through the droids mangled head in time to decapitate a second Droid that was advancing upon him, spinning around just as a third enemy attacked him. Lightsaber and Mandalorian battle axe clashed as he parried attack after attack, slowly pushing his opponent back. The axe continued to stand up to the assault, and the Mandalorian managing to get in a few good swipes of his own as he was forced on the defensive.
A burst of fire exploded amongst the Mandalorians, close enough to knock Spike off his feet. He recovered quickly, but the Mandalorian he had been fighting had disappeared into a cloud of red mist, armour and all.
Spike leapt over the body of a fallen Krath Warrior before the flat edge of an axe collided with his face, sending him spinning. His attacker, a massive Mandalorian clad in red armour, towered over him, axe bloody from multiple slain enemies.
“Jetii! You dare to bring your magic into this contest of strength!?” The Mandalorian female raised her axe for the finishing blow, but Spike lunged with Dusk and buried the purple blade in the female’s chest. He quickly ripped his Lightsaber out of the mortally wounded Mandalorian before spinning and decapitating the Warrior, the white blade of Elusive hissing as it rent armour and parted flesh.
Spike panted heavily as Zule staggered over to him. The human was bleeding from several small wounds, but he was still fighting, a fire in his eyes.
“Any word from the Republic?” Spike panted heavily, parrying a blow before unleashing a gout of flames, sending Krath scuttling for cover.
“No.” Spike muttered a curse at Zule’s response.
“Send as many messages as you can. In the meantime just keep fighting, we ca- wait.” Spike looked up towards the sky, sensing something was approaching. Even through the encroaching darkness of night, he could spot the faint outlines of troop flying high over the battle on tongues of fire, and from the direction they were coming from he could tell they weren’t friends of the Republic. “Airborne troops incoming! Are any of the troops unengaged?”
“Don’t think so. Maybe the operators of the cannons.”
“Tell them to take up arms and engage, leave the cannons.” Spike panted.
“On it!” Zule nodded, running back towards the Republic lines and the cannons beyond.
As Spike continued to fight, he saw that the command has been carried out, and a few soldiers began to fire upwards at the approaching Mandalorians. Spike sprinted across the courtyard, focusing his mind for a telekinetic push to allow him to get to where he expected the Mandalorians would land. Thrusting his hands forward, Spike roared as he threw a group of Krath warriors from their feet, finding himself right in the path of the oncoming Mandalorians.
“So, the Republic sheb wants to play at being a Jetii?” the leader of the group as he slammed into the ground, clenching his hands into fists and flicking his wrists, a pair of blades extending outwards from the oversized gauntlets. “It’ll be all the more satisfying to hear her scream.”
“I won’t give you the satisfaction, Mandalorian!” Spike shouted, raising his Lightsabers into a guard position.
“Ooh, defiant are we?” the warrior said, and Spike just knew that behind the face covering helmet, the Mandalorian was smirking. “That makes this even better. Don’t come between us, this one is mine.” He ordered, looking at his troops.
With a sudden cry the Mandalorian lunged forward, sweeping his claws towards Spike’s head. Dusk parried, the claws holding up to the power of his Lightsaber and thrust his second weapon forward, but the Mandalorian dodged, before rising up and slamming his helmet into Spikes face. As he staggered back, blood seeping down his face from his nose, Spike barely blocked a second strike from the enemy, his claws scraping shallow gouges into her already damaged breastplate.
With a grunt, Spike threw his shoulder into his foe, the two combatants tumbling over one another. With his Lightsabers being too unwieldy to use in such confined quarters, Spike pulled back his fist and slammed them into the Mandalorians helmet. The enemy managed to kick Spike away, the Jedi landing in a heap as the Mandalorian got back to his feet and prepared for another strike. The warrior leapt for him, but Spike released a blast of force energy and stopped the enemy in his tracks, allowing him room to get back on his feet.
The two circled each other, occasionally lunging in for a probing strike. Their duel had driven the pair back towards the Republic lines which had been breached in numerous places, fights breaking out behind the defence line.
Around them, the Mandalorians and their Krath allies had pushed the Republic forces back, but not without the Republic soldiers leaving scores of their enemies dead. It was not much in the face of the onslaught, but it gave Spike some hope.
“Why do you persist, Jetii?” Spike’s enemy said as the Mandalorian blocked another strike. “Why keep fighting when there is no hope of succeeding.”
“I will not allow myself to become a slave to someone like you and your Dark Master.” Spike spat.
“You are near-sighted then, Republic dog.” The Mandalorian lunged again, gouging out a large hole in Spike’s armour. “I have seen the truth. The Mandalore has shown us everything, and given us his blessing so that we may spread his truth and that of the of the Sith amongst all. But you that oppose us must be cast aside, your bodies and souls sacrified to Mandalore’s Dark Lords.” The Mandalorian attacked once more, but Spike ducked underneath the attack, causing the enemy to expose herself. Spike spun his Lightsabers around and swung upward, the blades tearing through armour and flesh, lodging themselves in the enemy’s gut, and bringing his helmet next to Spike head.
“My body and soul will only be forfeit when the Republic itself falls.” Spike forced one Lightsaber upwards, bisecting the Mandalorian before he could give a response.
Spike looked around; the Republic forces were holding out, and had even managed to open up the gap between the two forces again, but they were in too few numbers to repel the assault properly. Even as Spike watched, more shapes began to bank towards them, and Spike recognised them as Chaos fighters and the odd war droids that some Mandalorians rode upon.
“Fall back to the cannons! Prepare to close the blast doors!” Spike bellowed, raising his Lightsaber high so everyone present could see that the order was genuine and not an enemy trick.
“Like hell!” Asho roared back, her Lightsaber flaring as it sent a bolt back along the path to impact with the Krath droid that had fired it. “We’ve got ‘em on the run!”
“Look around you!” Spike roared back as the last of the Republic troops rushed past him into the relative safety of the cannons. “We couldn’t hold off another assault outside, but maybe we can in there!”
“We’ll be trapped!” she roared back, but Spike could see that she had seen reason and was beginning to edge backwards.
“We’re already trapped here!” Spike bellowed.
“Grr, FINE!” She roared, turning and sprinting next to Spike as the pair of Jedi made for the cannons as the rest of the Republic forces provided sporadic covering fire from the blast door.
“Where do you get off ordering a ret…”
A single shot passed through the head of the Twilek, splattering blood and brains across Spike’s chest.