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It had been a long, hard, battle in an even longer campaign.
Finally, they had gotten some good news. The 104th had arrived to provide support, finally allowing Obi-Wan and the 212th to regroup and replenish their diminishing supplies.
Obi-wan was exhausted. He knew his men were too. In his case, it was not only physical exhaustion, but the beginnings of Force exhaustion. He knew the bone deep weariness that came with it and knew from previous experience that continuing to push himself by using the Force more would be a bad idea.
Obi-Wan found himself almost falling asleep standing up on the transport off planet. Cody was standing next to him, and though his face was covered with his helmet, Obi-Wan could feel his concerned gaze.
They hadn’t even made it out of the atmosphere when a sudden blast rocked the shuttle, knocking many of the men to the floor. Immediately, alarms began to blare. The shuttle tilted as it began to fall out of the air.
Snapping fully awake, Obi-Wan could hear the captain of the shuttle trying and failing to right the ship.
The ground was coming closer. They were going to crash.
“Hold on!” Obi-Wan yelled. He reached for the Force, ignoring the way it burned like an overused muscle. He pulled it around himself and his men, forming a protective barrier as best as he could. This was going to hurt.
The shuttle crashed with a deafening boom and an impressive fireball. Obi-Wan screamed from the effort of holding a Force shield against the immense impact forces.
The impact lasted less than a second, and Obi-wan put more energy into his Force shield in that second than he had ever put into a single action in his life. Even for a trained Jedi master, there was only so much channeling of the Force that a body can handle. Obi-Wan had just found his limit.
His shield flickered out, and he slumped to the ground, unconscious.
Cody groaned as he picked himself up off the pile of twisted metal he had been laying on. He had not expected to survive the crash.
He could vaguely remember General Kenobi shouting for everyone to hold on as he raised his hands the way he did when calling on the Force. Whatever Obi-Wan had done, it had allowed him to survive the crash, albeit with his entire body feeling like one giant bruise.
He looked around through the cracked visor of his bucket. He saw several of his brothers strewn across the wreckage of the shuttle. It could hardly be called a shuttle anymore, just a twisted and shattered hunk of scrap.
And there, to his right, lying face up on the ground, unmoving, was the General. “Obi-Wan,” he said, hurrying over to his General as fast as he could when he felt like he had just been run over by a speeder bike.
He crouched over Obi-Wan, taking off his bucket in order to see better. Obi-Wan didn’t respond to his voice or his touch, but his pulse was steady and he was breathing.
Cody was also worried about his vode, not knowing how many had survived the crash, but the General ranked higher in priority.
He began to check Obi-Wan over for injuries. Like himself, Obi-Wan was covered in scrapes and bruises, but he couldn’t see or feel any major injuries. Obi-Wan’s nose was bleeding steadily, though Cody didn’t know if it was from the crash or not. He remembered that nosebleeds were one of the symptoms of Force exhaustion.
He had luckily never witnessed it himself, with both him and the medics badgering Obi-Wan into taking care of himself. Cody did not understand the Force enough to know how much energy different actions took, but protecting them from a deadly shuttle crash, even partially, certainly seemed like the sort of thing that could cause Force exhaustion, especially since Obi-Wan had already been tired from a long battle, having used the Force throughout it.
He tried once more to rouse his General, to no avail.
There was a rustling noise coming from behind him. He spun to see a massive creature padding towards the wreckage.
It was larger than a nexu, built with large powerful shoulders and a proportional small head. Though it may be small compared to its body, it’s mouth was still plenty large to do some serious damage, especially as it was filled with wicked looking teeth.
Its front paws were adorned with huge, thick claws that looked equally good for digging and disemboweling prey. The whole thing was covered with a short coat of fur the exact same reddish brown as the soil. It was unclear whether this was a natural coloration or if the animal was simply covered in a layer of dust. Either way, it made for effective camouflage.
The creature was currently stalking towards Cody with predatory intent.
He reached for his blaster, though truthfully he wasn’t sure how effective it would be against a creature of this size. His fingers hit an empty holster. His blaster must have been lost during the crash.
Holding back a curse, he cast a glance around, looking for another blaster. All of his brothers were too far away to reach from his current position and the creature was getting closer. If he made a mad dash to grab a blaster from one of his brothers, the sudden movement might cause the creature to attack before he could get off a shot.
But there, right next to his knee as though placed within reach on purpose, was Obi-Wan’s lightsaber. That should work well against even the largest of animals, as long as Cody could manage to avoid accidentally cutting off his own arm.
He grasped the handle, the metal feeling warm under his touch. It was not the first time he had held Obi-Wan’s saber, having handed it back to the Jedi on several occasions, but he had never held it while lit.
Making sure it was pointed away from himself and Obi-Wan, he pressed the button. Blue plasma shot out of the handle, forming a blade which hummed with energy.
The creature paused, staring at the new bright object for a moment before continuing to stalk towards him.
“Back off.” Cody waved the lightsaber threateningly towards the beast, and immediately realized why only Force sensitives used lightsabers. It was not heavy, and yet the blade resisted his movements. It felt like he was holding a spinning gyroscope, trying to turn it only for it to try and pull itself back to its original orientation.
The creature did not seem scared of the lightsaber. And why should it? It had never seen one before, so for all it knew, its prey was merely waving a small branch at it.
The beast was within striking distance now. Cody swung at the beast. The tip of the lightsaber passed through the end of the creature’s nose without resistance, then left a furrow in the ground as Cody overextended his swing.
The creature leapt back with a yelp, pawing at its injured nose.
Cody took the brief respite to pull the lightsaber back up into a ready position. He didn’t think this was over, not yet.
Sure enough, once the creature had recovered from the shock of being injured by what it had assumed to be easy prey, it got angry. The beast bellowed at Cody, baring all of its needle sharp teeth.
The beast lunged at him, Cody stepping forward to meet it. He swung the lightsaber with more intent this time. The blade connected with flesh in the same moment that the creature’s claws connected with his chest plate.
Cody was sent flying backward from the blow. The creature’s head hit the floor. Its body stood for a moment longer before crumpling into a heap.
Cody groaned. If his ribs weren’t already broken from the crash, they certainly were now. He sat up, gingerly, looking at the body of the beast.
His General was safe–at least he wasn’t any worse off than before–the creature was dead and Cody still had all of his limbs. He’d count that as a win.
He let out a huff of laughter, happy to be alive. Fighting off a huge beast all on his own with a kriffing lightsaber? His batch mates would never believe him.
Speaking of the lightsaber, where had it gone? He glanced around, quickly finding it.
It was a good thing that Obi-Wan’s lightsaber had a safety shut off when it fell out of the user’s hand. It had landed right next to Cody, the blade emitter pointing directly at his torso.
He picked up the saber and clipped it to his belt in case any more local wildlife decided they looked like an easy snack.
Obi-Wan was still unconscious, but several of his brothers were beginning to stir.
He would check on them, and then they would watch over the General as they waited to be rescued. He had saved their lives, it was only right they protected his next.