Ashes Of The Ocean | Skyjade

2

The only way out of here had slipped away right in front of his eyes, and he found himself staring at the river where the holocron had been seconds before. He didn't know what to do, this could all be holocrons plan. He stumbled painfully as he suddenly realized he had been shot, never turn your back on an enemy, he had forgotten a very simple rule, this time the shot had hit his torso in a near fatal position. No matter how he looked at it he was in a very bad situation, as soon as he turned around he realized that the clone army's full attention was on him and two jedi were standing over him. He guessed it was the clone who had shot him, if it had been a lightsaber wound he would be pretty dead now. The droid army was retreating because it had taken heavy damage, so the republican army's entire focus was on him. He was angry that he had lost the holocron, but that was not going to give him a way out. The chances of him getting away with his wound and stealing a ship were slim, but they didn't know how bad it was because they thought he was with the droid army. Maybe he could still escape.

The older jedi, now certain of who he was, he heard how the clones had called him. Tatooine had not been kind to him, he could see now how nineteen years of exile on a scorching planet had worn him down. He had been so young here that he had struggled to recognize him, the Obi-Wan Kenobi he knew was a man whose face you could see how life had broken him. Wrinkled forehead, graying hair, the weight of the galaxy on his back, and here he was, well-groomed, fit and at the peak of his powers. The Jedi stepped forward with a neutral face, not holding his lightsaber in a threatening manner, although he did not close it just in case while the Jedi behind him, have wrinkled face and he is reeking of distrust. His lightsaber was in a threatening position and he was ready to attack him at a sudden movement

"Droid forces are retreating, you are outnumbered. You have no chance of escape, surrender."

He raised an eyebrow at the word 'outnumbered', the power of a well trained force user was equal to an army, funny. His eyes shifted to the approaching padawan, she would have been a nice trump card if he had caught her, but the jedi watching her closely realized this and whispered something to the padawan and watched her walk away. He knew he would not give up easily, but he had always heard that Kenobi was a diplomat and now he was seeing it with his own eyes, a model Jedi, he thought. Surely he could take half the army with him without getting caught, it would be a sad blow, an unnecessary loss.

"A different deal; I will go my way and there will be no bloodshed, sounds fair."

"I can't let this happen."

"Are not Jedi the defenders of life? Or do you not see clones as a loss, Master Jedi?"

He looked directly into the jedi's eyes with a cold smile.

"We are soldiers, our duty is to fight, and there is no more honorable death than to die for this cause."

Before he could watch the Jedi's reaction, one of the clones that had surrounded him tightly and was pointing a weapon at him had entered the conversation, though he was genuinely curious to see what the Jedi would say, he would have to find out later. He made direct eye contact with the clone.

"It's a well-read monologue but I'll give you that, I've always been fascinated by the loyalty of clones."

Stromtroopers might have much better armor and more military weapons, but they were no match for the clones in terms of sense of duty, so there were still skilled clones serving in the army. He decided talk was enough and went on the offensive, blocking the blaster fire aimed at him and then jumping out of the clones' circle of fire. He lost his balance from his injury and it took him a while to recover, he could have jumped into the river and let the current take him somewhere else but that would have ended with his body colliding with the rocks, his body wasn't that strong right now and the color of the water didn't look good, the last thing he wanted was for his wound to get infected if the water was poisoned with waste.