Chapter 8: Warriors

"Can you stop it?" Asked General Skywalker.

"Well...I can try." Echo said, hesitance ringing from his every syllable, though duty drove him forward in the attempt.

The Jedi wasted no time, unfolding his arms and turning to leave the small, brightly lit comm vault.

"General, where are you going?" Rex asked as Anakin began to run.

The last thing Echo managed to hear was his leader's shouted response, before his focus was entirely consumed by the task before him.

"If you can't stop the detonation, perhaps Trench can!" Anakin called as he began to make his way towards the Bridge.

But Echo had no time to think about the general, he would take care of himself. Time was limited, time was slipping by, and he needed to figure out the sequence before that planet cracker went off! He found that the three hundreds and twenty eight data locks and forty eight thousand authentication gates were almost trivial to slice through, especially given the method and origin of his integrated...equipment.

It wasn't long before he had access, reaching out to seize and begin decrypting the code file. But suddenly, it was gone, everything was gone. But this blankness, this placidity only lasts for a fraction of a second. And then, pain.

Echo writhed, yet could not move, screamed, and yet felt his lips only tremble, his voice sealed. Something was attacking him, attacking his mind. It drove deep into him while at the same time, surrounding his every thought and access, both to the ship computer, and to his own body! He resisted, he struggled, but it was like wrestling with a thorn bush. He had no idea how to even really fight, and every attempted defense he raised seemed as liable to hurt himself as aid his struggle.

Meanwhile, whatever was attacking was almost ignoring him, sifting through his thoughts like a steel rake cutting lines in the mud. It was exposing him, reading him, drinking him like a spider drinks in the insides of an insect. Without warning it paused, and Echo sagged as much as he was able, grateful for the brief respite, though his body was still held rigid and unresponsive. Then a question. No, a command, a compulsion. Identify yourself.

Echo did not resist or comply, having still been considering whether or not to inform this entity of anything, when it was decided for him. Again, pain like Echo had never known coursed through him, cutting from the outermost layer of his superficial self, to the deepest part of what he could call himself. The pain ceased and the order came again.

"Echo! My name is Echo! And if you are not a separatist, then I am not your enemy!" He yelled into the void which surrounded him.

The pain did not return. Distantly, he could hear the voice of Mace Windu calling to him, asking him for the codes. But he still couldn't move or even feel his physical body.

"I am Brother Tasleon, of the Crimson Razor's Chapter of the Adeptus Astartes." Said a voice which seemed, at once, to come from all around Echo, and from within him as well.

Though the clone could not blink, he felt as though he must have as the form of a man appeared standing before him. He was a human, a little taller than Echo himself was. He had dusky skin and clear, light brown eyes. His Expression was stern, yet not unkind. His face, exposed hands and feet were flawless, with smooth skin and youthful features. He wore red robes, the linings of which were spoked and colored yellow, like the outer ends of golden cogs.

Aside from his odd attire, the man seemed different in just one other way. The air around him seemed...off. Perhaps it was the way he stood, or the unusual depth in his clear eyes, but he gave the impression of a false thing, like an aklay having been crammed into the skin and robes of a Jawa.

"Tell me more of whom you fight for, and you may yet survive to tell your...Republic, that their time has come to an end."

Brother Araknus was keeping watch, and it was a good thing too. All of the others who should be taking up the duty were only armed with meager side arms. Pathetic! They would never react as quickly and with as much range as he could with his bolter, it was simply a fact. A fact he demonstrated when the hatch into the bridge opened wide, a man in black robes running in.

The intruder seemed shocked by what he saw, that being Brother Araknus and his fire team all assembled around Brother Tasleon, who was crouching atop the odd command throne the spider like Xeno had been using earlier. His mechadendrites poured over the whole apparatus like a stream of steel, and some still cradled the deceased form of the alien which had given its life to delay Brother Tasleon.

A vicious smile slid onto Brother Araknus's hidden face, but not before he pulled the trigger of his bolter. The man could not run, could not dodge. He held some kind of cylindrical device in his hand, but the shot was coming too quickly to activate it! And then Brother Araknus watched as the stranger seemed to flinch, even before the bolt shell had fully left the barrel, making a gesture with his left hand as he dodged right.

But it wouldn't matter, Araknus was sure of it. A surety he lost as he watched the air splittingly fast bolts of his gun twist away from their intended target, as if suddenly subjected to concentrated gale force winds. At the sight of this blasphemous phenomenon, this intolerable defiance of the Emperor's Will, a name, an identification, rose to his lips. He spoke it, no, screamed it, before he even knew what he was saying or even precisely why.

But none doubted his instinct or claim when he did, and he was glad for it, for it was true!

"Witch!" Brother Araknus roared.

The man was already fleeing at unnatural speed back the way he came. He activated a blue sword of incandescent light, and threw it, sending it in an arch to strike a nearby control panel. Before another breath could even be drawn, Brother Hastus, wielding his power sword in both hands, launched himself clean through the closing gap in the doorway, barely clearing it before it slammed shut.

Other members of the fireteam moved to open the door but found its esoteric mechanisms unresponsive. Seeing no other choice, Araknus turned to his brother.

"Tasleon, awaken from your reverie. We had an intruder."

Slowly, Tasleon's helmed head turned to face Brother Araknus, and received a report on what had just happened.

"That was probably one of the Jedi." Brother Tasleon said.

"Jedi?" Araknus repeated.

His voice seemed to snap Brother Tasleon again back to the immediate moment, and he shook his head gently.

"Call your man back."

Anakin was running, and one of those things from inside the bridge was chasing. What were they? New droids? New Separatists? He would have guessed not from the sight of Admiral Trench's still smoking body, but they didn't seem to be discriminating between who they targeted with those slug throwers. Or were they high powered grenade launchers?

Anakin wasn't sure, but what he was sure of was that the one chasing him, somehow keeping pace with him, was not using a gun of his own, both of his hands clamped around a large, broad blade. Taking a gamble, Anakin spun to meet his adversary.

He was gone, something Anakin knew to be an illusion of some sort, as he had felt the beings loping, hammering footfalls only just prior. Still, canny though he was, if it had not been for his skill in precognition, he would have fallen victim to Hastus's ploy, the massive marine having read Anakin's intention to turn about in his movement, and leapt smoothly and quickly to the right, away from the Jedi's sweeping line of sight.

From there he coiled for an instant, absorbing all the force of his sudden leap and converting it into the power he used to fuel a lunging thrust. Normally, most enemies would be too stunned by the sudden "Vanishing" of their pursuers, to react appropriately to the second of time they had before his blade met their chest, but not Anakin.

Reacting instinctively, moving before his eyes ever connected with the hurtling form of the Astartes, Anakin back stepped out of the path of the blade's edge and put his gamble to the test. He whipped his radiant blue saber out, watching in mild appreciation as the huge warrior before him both halted his considerable momentum, and swept his sword in to intercept Anakin's swipe with a slash of his own.

Clearly both expected their swords to overcome the other, and as the light saber met the powerfield, both were proven wrong. The Energy field containing the plasma and radiation which composed a lightsaber and the powerfield which gave the power sword it's name, repulsed violently when they met, the field sparking and filling the air with the smell of ozone and burning metal, while the saber seemed to bend over so slightly as it resisted the focused edge of the enemy weapon.

But the power sword did bear one advantage over the saber, it was heavy. Very heavy. The marine roared like a beast, letting the sound be loose through his helmet speakers as he twisted his torso, completing the followthrough on his swing and sending Anakin almost flying. No sooner had the jedi managed to catch himself and balance his footing before the astartes was on him again, aggressively pursuing, pushing his enhanced physiology to allow the Jedi no moments of rest.

But Anakin made him pay for that mindless aggression. Against a normal opponent, the massive warrior may well have overwhelmed them with his furious, reckless attacks. But Anakin had been fighting against Asajj Ventress long enough to be well versed in how to counter that tactic, and despite the unnatural speed of the astartes he faced, he was wielding just one blade, not two, and he was all speed. All power.

Anakin swayed, allowing the sparking power sword to slide inches away from his body, as he struck with his own weapon. The jedi learned then that, while the power sword could repel a lightsaber, the armor of these new warriors could not. Anakin leapt back, kicking off the chest of his enemy and was not pursued, drawing his saber away from the scorched helmet of the marine. It had been a glancing blow, Hastus having somehow been fast enough to both perceive the incoming blade, even after his own weapon was committed, and tilt his head away from it.

Anakin had thought that maneuver would not be enough, had thought it was too little too late. But when the warrior reached up and pulled away his smoking helmet, Anakin realized this was somehow not the case. From his jaw to his now missing ear, the man had clearly suffered direct contact from the Jedi's weapon. His teeth were exposed on the left side of his face, some burnt away, many still glowing bright orange, as was the remnant of his cheek bone and the portion of exposed skull near where his ear used to be.

Yet this warrior did not reach up in pain or horror, did not flinch or turn away from the agony of his injuries, and did not sway or seem in any way intoxicated. His eyes, bright green and piercing, never left Anakin as he dropped his smoking helmet to the ground, and spread his legs, taking up a wide stance as both his hands took the haft of his power sword in a trained grip.

"Trust me friend," Anakin said as he swept his saber into several quick flourishes, taking up a stance of his own.

"You don't want to do this."

The warrior seemed not to understand him, something Anakin had fully expected. He found himself unexpectedly longing for C-3PO's unsolicited interjections, especially as the warrior gave a single, short nod, and dashed forward. Anakin met his charge with a counter charge, sliding into his favored lightsaber form.

He had been playing it defensively before, much like his master would have done, allowing the enemy to create his own openings, and taking advantage of them once discovered. But that had never been Anakin's style, no, he preferred to create his own openings, to dominate his opponent with overwhelming power.

This was a mistake, for in engaging brother Hastus in this matter, Anakin had removed himself from the center of his advantage as a jedi, precognition and agility, and had moved into realms in which the astartes held nearly all the cards. They clashed like a spike of ice meeting a tsunami, but not one composed of salty, chilled water. The wave which crashed over the determined pinnacle of Anakin's assault was made of molten, burning metal, and though he resisted mightily, Anakin found himself overcome.

He felt all the air rush out of his lungs as he was carried into the wall, managing to keep his saber up, his back now braced against the steel of the ship. Brother Hastus kept his wide stance as he laid on even more pressure, pinning the Jedi by the sheer force of his own two handed slash.

Anakin gasped, trying to pull air back into himself, trying to keep himself from being sliced in half by the unreal strength of the warrior who pinned him. His saber was shrieking, the containment field bending as it was braced against the powerfield. He could feel the heat, could smell the burning of his robes, of the skin around his good hand.

"Wrecking time!"

The deep call was followed by a sudden jerk as the space marine was thrown clean off of Anakin, hitting the wall opposite them heavily. The astartes whipped his sword out to catch the new attacker with its lethal edge, But failed to land a solid strike, leaving only a deep, bleeding furrow in Wrecker's chest.

The huge clone didn't even seem to notice, arms extending to catch his DC-17m rifle, which had been tossed to him by his sergeant, and began to unload into the hostile he had pulled off the general. The marine hit the wall hard, but didn't hesitate either, rebounding off of it instantly, only pulled up short by Wrecker's sudden volley of near point blank fire. Still, not one shot could land on Hastus's armor, The marine using the flat of his power sword to rapidly swipe away at the incoming blaster bolts.

Anakin had fallen to his knees the instant he could, dropping his saber and cupping his burned hand as he dragged a long breath into his flattened lungs. Captain Rex was there in moments, helping Anakin to his feet as Sergeant Hunter gingerly retrieved the general's cooling lightsaber.

"General, are you alright?" Asked Rex.

Anakin coughed and nodded, leaning on the clone as his vision cleared.

"I'll be fine, is everyone here?" Anakin asked a moment later.

Rex nodded towards Tech, who had Echo in tow. He was helping to support the augmented clone, but Echo seemed lucid. Terrified, but lucid.

"Crosshair stayed back to cover our-" Rex started.

"Uh, not to freak anyone out, but this guy isn't stopping!" Wrecker yelled, still unloading into the marine, and still getting nowhere with that tactic.

Meanwhile, Brother Hastus had been making headway, step by step. He had no idea how powerful these alien weapons were, and was determined not to allow any of them to defile his blessed armor, swiping each blast out of the air one after another. But these bolts were slower than bullets, and much much easier to track with the naked eye, and Hastus found it almost easy to continue deflecting the blasts while advancing. Already he was almost close enough to strike the brute who had thrown him.

And then Wrecker's rifle ran out of power, and Hastus lunged. Wrecker was saved by the immediate actions of Anakin Skywalker, Captain Rex, Sergeant Hunter, and Commando Tech, the first of whom drew Wrecker just out of the reach of Hastus's blade with a force pull, almost throwing Wrecker into himself. The other three opened fire, Tech with one side arm, Rex with two, and Hunter with his own DC-17m, pushing the marine back as Hastus found himself overmatched by their combined fire power.

He created distance between them, angling himself to retreat down the hallway the clones had come from, keeping them in front of him as he brought himself to a manageable range, where he would be able to continue deflecting bolts with just one arm. He felt pinpricks of heat around his body during his initial retreat as several bolts slipped past his guard, and almost smirked with the half of his lips which remained.

These weapons were about as powerful as lasguns, and much easier to avoid. He shifted his stance, defending his head only as one of his hands departed his dancing blade, reaching behind himself. Blaster bolts pelted ineffectively against the ceramite plates of his power armor, and Tech's mouth gaped wide as he watched blaster bolts capable of blowing holes two feet around in ferrocrete simply bouncing off this new enemy's ornate armor.

Small dents and marks formed in some places, and the armor glowed red hot in others, but all in all, it seemed to be doing nearly nothing. He began to wonder why the warrior didn't just charge them with his sword and start cutting. Then the warrior raised his free hand up into the air. What he held was large, even in his huge hand, and roughly shaped like a green, spineless pineapple.

"Grenade-" Tech yelled, but was cut off as the explosive went off.

It detonated, not on the ground, and not in the air, but in the warrior's hand, before he had even thrown it. The blast was massive, it almost knocked them down, and Tech had to go down to one knee to continue supporting Echo. He felt his body jerk, and when the smoke cleared, groaned as he found a large piece of shrapnel jutting from the armor over his abdomen.

Hunter was there in an instant, taking Echo's weight off of Tech as Rex came over to examine his wound.

"How bad is it?" Tech asked, laying back against the wall.

"I can't tell from here. We'll have to remove your armor and-" Rex started.

"He's fine. Trust me." Hunter said, kneeling to extend an arm to Tech.

Tech never doubted his brother before, and he didn't start then, clasping Hunter's arm and groaning again as he was hauled up, shrapnel and all. He looked at where the warrior had been. He was still there, collapsed in a heap on the ground. His face was a bloody ruin, barely intact at all, and even his armor had been shredded in a way their weapons had been utterly unable to accomplish.

"What happened?" Tech asked.

Rex looked and shrugged, but Hunter smiled knowingly.

"That'd be me." Said Crosshair, stepping out from the thinning veil of smoke and standing atop the ruined hulk of the warrior they had been fighting.

"Saw he was about to drop a Grenade on you," He said, hefting his rifle, pride dripping off him like slime off a hutt.

"And decided he deserved it more."

Tech smiled despite himself, and even Wrecker seemed oddly relieved by the support.

"You'll get plenty of congratulations once we make it." Anakin said, taking his saber from Hunter.

"But for now let's keep it moving. We've got wounded."

"Yes sir." Crosshair said with a lazy salute, before stepping off the corpse of the space marine.

A corpse that wasn't quite as much of a corpse as he should have been, something which was horrifically revealed when the warrior's hand snapped out. His sword had been blown out of his grasp, so it was with a combat knife that he sliced into and through Crosshair's leg, just under the knee.

Crosshair didn't cry out, he just grunted, like he'd been punched, and twisted as he fell. He hit the ground facing the marine, sighting down his rifle, and pumped one shot into the bridge of Hastus's nose. The blast blew away the space marine's eyes, his entire nose, and most of the flesh around his upper face, leaving his head as little more than a gory, burnt skull. Even this was impressive, what were his bones made out of, Tech wondered to himself.

"I've got staunch in my pack." Tech said, and Rex quickly retrieved it.

Wrecker pulled Crosshair away from the marine's body, now surely dead. Rex wasted no time in applying the staunch to Crosshair's bleeding stump while Anakin stood over them, saber out, eyes darting as if he expected even more of those warrior's to appear. Then there was a gurgling, a rasping, and then a creaking and thunk as the marine, somehow, impossibly still not dead, turned himself onto his back.

Tech watched with unshakable horror and fascination. The man was...laughing! The general seemed to hate that, Anakin's scowl deepening on his face as he approached the marine, saber raised. It was then that the warrior began to speak. He was repeating something with what was left of his lips. Over and over.

"Tech, can you translate that?" Anakin asked.

Tech blinked.

"Can I-Oh right! Just one moment General." Tech said as he activated his recording equipment and pulled out his datapad.

In a few moments he had the translation.

"He's saying…"To serve the Emperor's will…That we fight and die...It is our duty…" And he just keeps repeating it sir."

Anakin nodded, and opened his mouth to speak, but stopped when the marine before them proceeded to sit up. Anakin was having none of it, and moved quickly, swiping with his blue blade of light and snipping off the marine's head. The bloody thing toppled off Hastus's shoulders and dropped onto his legs as his body remained sitting upright.

Anakin released a breath he hadn't realized he had been holding as several seconds ticked by, every blaster and eye aimed at the now most certainly dead form of the space marine.

"Alright, let's get moving." The Jedi finally said.

And with Wrecker helping to support Crosshair, Rex supporting Tech, and Hunter supporting Echo, Anakin led them out, grateful for the lack of any significant droid presence on their escape. It was as they were nearing their shuttle entrance and exit that Anakin actually asked about their mission.

"Echo, did you manage to get the codes to Mace?"

The cybernetically augmented clone shook his head sorrowfully, and Anakin felt a sharp pang in his nerves as he considered the implications of losing both Mace Windu and his own Master, along with millions of clones, all in one failure.

"The bomb didn't go off sir." Echo quickly added, seeing the change in Anakin's face.

The jedi sighed in relief.

"Then, what happened?"

Again, Echo grimaced.

"I think I made first contact with...with them, sir. The faction that warrior in the hallway belonged to. They seized control of the ship's computer, so they have control of that bomb now too. They haven't detonated it yet, but honestly Sir, that might just be a temporary stay of execution for Annaxes, so I advised General Windu to retreat."

Anakin nodded but scowled. It wasn't as bad as losing Mace Windu and Obi-Wan, but having been forced off of Anaxes would greatly hinder the war effort. As they entered the shuttle, Echo seized Anakin's arm.

"Sir. Look, I know you may not have a lot of reason to trust me...as I am now. I know that you probably don't agree with me telling General Windu to retreat from the planet...but Sir, if you had seen what I had seen...if you knew them the way...the way he made me know them...We aren't ready sir. We are so not ready that it's going to take a miracle to save Axum...maybe even to save the Republic."

And looking into Echo's eyes then, and remembering the warrior, remembering the strength of him, and how many of them had been on the bridge...Remembering the words the warrior spoke as he fought through impossible wounds, to continue a fight with an enemy he didn't even know, Anakin realized he believed him. He said as much to Obi-Wan when next he saw him, and Mace Windu after that.

And of course, he reported this to the Chancellor as well.

"Hmm, then it seems we must become prepared." Said Sheev Palpatine, no more than a diminutive hologram in the center of a desk around which all the aforementioned jedi sat, Anakin included.

"This is the second place this new, 'outsider' threat has appeared...I am leaving the Axum system in the hands of Jedi Master Ki-Adi-Mundi, you are to bestow your forces onto him for the time being. In the meantime, you are to go to Rothana, where the Survivors of our true first contact have gathered. From among them I want you to form a team of witnesses and experts, if there are any to be found. Measure out this threat, and then come to me with your results, and your suggestions."

The Jedi bobbed their heads as one.

"Yes Chancellor." They intoned.

The small, blue image of Palpatine flickered and smiled.

"Good luck to you three. And remember, the very fate of the Republic could hang in the balance. Do not fail, and may the force be with you."