11 Greetings Master

Jaden had trained from the night to the early hours of the morning trying to improve his use of Form I. Satele was only satisfied when he could perform all the Katas seamlessly, which was when she allowed him to move onto Form II; it wasn't as easy as that however as she told him that anytime they trained lightsaber forms Jaden needed to run through each form he knew before they started on the next one. So if Jaden wanted to train Form V he had to show Satele all the previous forms perfectly otherwise he'd have to train the ones he failed.

"She's a damn taskmaster," he grumbled to himself as he sat down by the fire that had long since gone out. Luckily for Jaden, Satele was no longer present or she'd have a few words to say about his comment. Jaden looked out into the muddy rocky plains outside of the caves and smiled, he found himself involuntarily walking back out into the rain; despite the clouds that covered the sky Jaden could see the orange hue shining through on the horizon. This was the first time he'd seen a sunrise and it was beautiful.

Inside the cave Aurra found herself waking up. Anger immediately flooded her mind as she remembered how Jaden had knocked her out but what followed stopped her anger dead 'What the hell is this,' she thought to herself as she looked down at her body. Ever since she was younger she had been suffering from intense chronic pain; after she was sold to the pirates by the Jedi she had been tortured and subjected to all manner of vile things. The result of which gave her severe nerve damage; a doctor had told her that her nerve endings had lost the ability to turn off so for years now she was in constant pain no matter what medication she took.

Aurra inspected her body more and saw how her wounds from the crash had been healed as well. For the first time in years, she was not in pain, she sat there not sure what to do; never in her wildest dreams did she expect something like this to ever happen. But the question that plagued her mind the most was how.

Aurra stood up and marched towards the mouth of the cave where Jaden was standing taking in the sights "What did you do to me!" She shouted at him, while she couldn't say she was angry her emotions were overwhelming her —and anger was a part of it.

"Good morning to you too," Jaden said as he rolled his eyes. Aurra growled and reached out for him only to get a mild shock; she had forgotten about the damn collar around her neck. Stepping back she glared at Jaden who was still trying to enjoy the sunrise "I was practising my healing abilities and so I used you as a test subject," he said bluntly.

"You force healed me?" She asked

Jaden nodded "I didn't think you'd mind, though at the time I couldn't exactly ask you," he said before going back to watching the sunrise.

Aurra however was thinking deeply about what he had told her 'I went to the Jedi temple before I became an assassin, my master was one of the best healers in the order and she told me she wouldn't be able to deal me, she said the control needed to fix all of your nerves was beyond possible.'

How did this no-name Jedi do it if a Master of the healing arts could not? Something didn't make sense, he told her that he was using her to practice 'So he hasn't even mastered the healing arts? And yet he was able to heal my condition?' Aurra thought to herself. A piece of the puzzle was missing and she would make sure to find it.

"Thank you..." she said reluctantly, normally she wouldn't have dared say something like that to a slave of the republic but the emotions that were swelling up inside her made her behave a little differently than normal. It had been so long since she was able to wake up and not experience such pain, at times she still as to take medication to send her to sleep.

Jaden turned around at her and looked surprised "What did you say?" He asked, surely he couldn't have heard her right.

"Nothing..." She said before walking back towards the cave.

"Weird," Jaden commented.

———————————————————

"Covering fire!" Commander Delts yelled out as he and a squad of troops dipped over from behind cover and started firing at the enemy down the hill. A Clone Trooper squad ran from cover where they were on an uneven stretch of land and made it to Commander Delt's position, though one of the troops was shot through the back and he fell to the ground.

"Get the blaster canon set up!" Delts commanded, the clones scrambled to get it done as they were bombarded by missiles and blaster fire from down the hill. As it was set up Delts took control of the gun; it started rotating before it unleashed a hail of blaster fire down at the enemies below. The Nimbus Commandos who were skating above the muddy terrain were shot down and the Jabiimi Nationalists who were attempting to make the climb in that section were all killed or forced to retreat.

Delts fired until his hands went numb and the weapon overrated "Good shooting sir!" One of the men shouted as they cheered. They had beaten the enemy back down again despite the constant artillery bombarding their position; in truth, they were lucky as the weather of Jabiim made getting a lock on their position using instruments difficult, so they had to eyeball it which was lucky for them as it was night.

Delts looked at the Clones who were beginning to cheer in victory as they had survived the night, but he didn't cheer nor did any of the other officers —they knew the truth. Yesterday they only had to fight in daylight for a few hours before they got the cover of night but now they have a full day out in the open. The artillery is going to make mince meat out of them all and the Nimbus Commandos would come and mop up the rest.

Delts sat down on a rock as he went through his options. If they retreated they'd lose the advantage the hill gave them and most likely be run down as they tried to traverse the muddy terrain, but if they stayed then they'd be in direct line of sight of their Hailfire tank and would most likely end up being slaughtered. Delta quickly accepted they would not be leaving this hill, and so he needed to figure out how to bring down as many of the enemy forces with them.

"Echo!" Delts shouted as he stood up.

Demolitions Clone Trooper EC-567 otherwise known as Echo snapped to attention "What can I do for you, Commander?" He asked with a quick salute.

"I need an inventory of all the explosives we landed with ASAP," he instructed.

"Sergeant!" He called out to the Clone Sergeant next to him.

The Sergeant snapped to his feet with his blaster rifle at his side, he looked tired and Delts saw how he stumbled —how his legs shook as they tried to hold his body up. The sergeant had taken multiple shots during the night but kept fighting, he was a true soldier.

"Yes Commander..." he said in a tired voice.

"I need you to extract the power cells from all the escape pods, we are gonna make some fireworks," Delts said as he holstered his weapon.

———————————————————-

Jaden and Aurra traversed the muddy plains as the rain beat down on them. Jaden put the scanner on his wrist a couple of times as the weather was making it bug out —or it was the fact that it was made from scrap. Jaden was currently walking towards a city, at least he hoped it was a city; he wasn't able to use the ship's scanners for long before they burnt out, but while he was able to he detected the city not too far away.

Hopefully, he'd get to the city and find the parts he needed to fix his ship. Then he can get out of here —then the galaxy is his to explore. Jaden was brought out of his thoughts by an annoying sound.

"I asked you a question Jedi!" Aurra said angrily.

"We are getting parts to fix my ship and then getting the hell off this planet," Jaden said lazily.

Aurra's eyes widened and she turned around to look at him "You're deserting? But you're a Jedi are you not?" She said her voice laced with shock.

Jaden chuckled "Jedi or not this isn't my fight, the republic and separatists can fight for the next thousand years, I'll be enjoying myself elsewhere."

Aurra narrowed her eyes at him, he was unlike any Jedi she had met before. 'Most Jedi are just as brainwashed as their clones,' she thought to herself. The Jedi in front of her made no sense, and it infuriated her to no end. She wanted to kill him for what he had done so far, both to her ship and back on the republic cruiser, though she did feel slightly conflicted on the matter 'I'm no longer in pain because of him...'. So perhaps she will just knock him out and leave him here.

Jaden stopped fiddling around with his wrist scanner when he felt a disturbance. "Get down!" He said as he force-pushed Aurra to the ground and ignited his lightsaber.

Two blue sniper bolts hit both of them, the first one missed Aurra —hitting a boulder and near vaporising it— and the second one was deflected by Jaden as he brought his lightsaber up, he was surprised and was pushed back on his feet due to the power of the bolt; grunting he swung his lightsaber sending the bolt back to where it came.

...

*BOOM*

The sniper bolt that ARC trooper Lieutenant Lock had fired at the suspected enemies down there was surprisingly deflected back up at them nearly hitting them.

"Damn seppie..." Lock growled out before he lined up his rifle again going to take a second shot.

"Hold your fire Lieutenant!" Aubrie said as she looked over the ridge, she hadn't gotten a good look at them before but now they were close she could see one of them was dressed in Jedi robes and had a lightsaber 'They must be part of the reinforcements,' she thought to herself.

"Look, it's a Jedi," she said to her companions.

Zule who was further back walked over and looked "Part of the reinforcements?" She questioned to which Aubrie nodded her head.

"I can still take out the other one..." Lock said as he looked through his scope.

"Stand down Lock, we don't know the situation yet, let's get down there," Aubrie instructed him and the rest of the eighteen clones that were with them. Leska had given them two squads to go and look for survivors, but at the last moment, Lieutenant Lock an ARC trooper volunteered to accompany them. Needless to say, he wasn't a very pleasant person to be around —most ARC troopers weren't.

Lock made no vocal sign of acknowledgement but did stop aiming his sniper at the two people below. "Let's go down and greet them," Aubrie stated but as she went to walk she found her arm being grabbed by Lock.

"Anyone can pick up a lightsaber Commander... you sure that's a Jedi down there," he warned her.

While this got Aubrie to consider her actions again Zule was in no mood to "We shall see won't we," she said as she jumped down the ridge using her bionic arm and the force to slow the fall.

...

Jaden kept his lightsaber high as he saw the red-skinned falleen jump down the small cliff that their group was perched on. Following her, their entire party made their way down the cliff —though a bit more slowly than Zule did.

"Identify yourself!" Zule shouted out at them as she unholstered her lightsaber.

Jaden didn't initially know that Zule was a Jedi as her ripped outfit and cybernetic arm threw him off, but as soon as he saw the lightsaber he understood he must've run into a Republic party 'Shit...' he thought to himself as he turned off his lightsaber.

"I am Jedi Knight Jaden Katarn, I came with the republic reinforcements, to whom am I speaking," he said in a crisp clear voice as he removed his hood.

"I am Padawan Zule Xiss, who is this woman you travel with?" She asked as she pointed the hilt of her lightsaber towards Aurra who was scowling at both of them.

"She is an Assassin, she sabotaged the Defender before we left Coruscant, it's why we were delayed," Jaden explained.

At this point, Aubrie had caught up to Zule who had started to relax and finally clipped her lightsaber back onto her waist. "Greetings Master Katarn, it is good we came across you," Zule said bowing her head slightly, while she was known for her hot temper and bad manners she wouldn't let it be said about her that she lacked respect —her old master taught her better than that.

"Greetings Master!" Aubrie joined in as she bowed slightly.

"And you are?" Jaden asked.

"Padawan Aubrie Wyn, Master," she replied.

"What are you all doing so far from your main forces?" Jaden asked.

"We were sent by Master Leska to gather any survivors from the escape pods we saw enter the atmosphere, we didn't expect another Jedi to be with the reinforcements," Aubrie stated.

"It was a last-minute thing, I had just returned from a mission of my own," he explained.

"Were you making your way to the survivors? We shouldn't be that far away from them now," Aubrie said moving on immediately.

Jaden kept a straight face but he felt like cursing and slamming his fist on the ground. He would make them suspicious if he said no; they may even doubt he is a Jedi, and if that happens then getting off this planet becomes harder. He could mention he has a secret mission that he has to understand, but would a Jedi abandon the survivors to do a task.

In the end Jaden felt like he'd been cornered; if they were close by then he really didn't have much of an excuse not to offer his help "Yes I was, though I do wonder how likely it is that they stayed in the same place, it's possible they could've travelled to a nearby city or settlement for cover?" Jaden stated, he hoped he could at least get to the settlement, once he got the stuff he needed it didn't matter if they found out he wasn't a Jedi.

"Clones won't venture out from the landing zone if they're in enemy territory, protocol is to reinforce their position and create an operating base, from there small parties can be sent out to gather intel. They will still be there," Lieutenant Lock said as he approached the three Jedi.

Jaden stifled a scowl and instead smiled "Then I suppose we shouldn't waste any more time," he said.

"Keep your men spread out, this terrain is perfect for an ambush so we don't want to be bunched together," Jaden commanded as he felt himself slipping back into his training.

"Yes sir..." Lock said surprised at the well-thought-out strategy coming from the Jedi who looks as if he wasn't much older than the Padawans.

"Padawan Wyn tell me about the state of the planet while we walk it'll be good to be caught up on events," He said as he started to walk.

He then remembered Aurra who was standing there a scowl still present on her face. He approached her and drew her close "If you don't behave yourself I'll leave you on this planet, if you do then you can get off this planet with me, understood?" He whispered harshly into her ear. She shoved him away scowling at him but eventually, she nodded and turned away.

Jaden then turned around and smiled "Come then let us go," he said as he walked through the muddy terrain with Aubrie and Zule at his side as he was informed about the current events of the planet; most recently being the battle at Shelter Base and the deaths of various Jedi —most notably Master Sirrus and Master Obi-wan Kenobi. Jaden couldn't help but feel a little more nervous than before, he didn't think war would be easy, but he didn't expect the republic to be losing like this 'Jedi are incredibly powerful and yet here they are dropping like flies,' he thought to himself. He just hoped he didn't suffer the same fate as all these masters; he definitely wouldn't because he didn't plan on fighting, he would get out of here.

"I'm sorry you lost your Master, Padawan Wyn, it must be a difficult loss," Jaden said sincerely.

Aubrie nodded "It has, but I can only hope to make sure my Master's death wasn't in vain and help free these people from the Separatists," she replied.

"The Separatists won't have the upper hand for long..." Zule said as she made a fist with a bionic arm. Jaden was pretty new to his senses when it came to the force but even he could sense the anger and emotions coming from Zule; while it was clear she tried to keep them in check he could feel it bubbling just beneath the surface 'She must be channelling the Dark side, I'm surprised no one else has noticed, or perhaps they don't care?' He wondered to himself as they walked.

Jaden didn't comment on it however as he kept his head forward 'I hope this mud is the most difficult thing I have to encounter,' he thought to himself —though even he didn't believe his words.

Jaden with his new companions pressed on from past sunrise to mid-morning where the rain still fell on them. However, they were getting closer and closer to the crash site where they hoped dozens of clones awaited for them.

(AN: Next Chapter will be the first battle that Jaden is a part of, I wonder how it'll go. Probably pretty well since he's the MC. Anyway suggestions of the harem is always appreciated though you can't change my mind about Aubrie and Ahsoka. I hope you liked my chapter.)

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