Saffia

*Eliza could feel the resolve around her bend, it wasn't quite breaking but the troops were starting to feel overwhelmed. If the situation didn't change soon things could go very wrong. Feeling her exhaustion she reaches out to Beric Donovan, connecting with him in a familiar meld as they hatch a plan to turn the tide. Reaching out with the force the two began to work together to telekinetically lift a large chunk of stonework and fling it into the onrushing enemy, the skipping rock killing or crippling a dozen of the soldiers. It was followed soon after by another rock, and then another, the pace increasing as the two knights began to get into a rhythm. It wasn't long before the constant battle of attack and defense between Larcener and her father that she could barely feel in the force around her disappeared as an opposing telekinetic force began deflecting their rubble and in at least one case stopping it outright. She knew that Beric and her weren't a match for Larcener outright but she hoped she had bought time for her father to pull something out of his hat.*

Clever Girl. *The aging Jedi Investigator muttered to himself as he smiled, reaching out with the force to reestablish the battle meditation. As the web of connected minds began the take shape in his thoughts he noticed that a lot had changed during his duel of wills with Larcener. It appeared like a group of Jedi had landed in the southern section of the city where a new attack had landed, being barely hed off by the cohort under the command of Oswald Bushfire, an experianced commando who had been leading a small rebel cell in the city for the brief time it had been under the control of the Dark Jedi Trivik Bricker. Reaching out with the meditation he gently invited the newcomers into the fold where, if they accepted, they would be given a sense of thanks as well as direction to Oswald and his men, holding the line with 6 AT-PTs and a lot of stubborn grit.

He hoped the Jedi reinforcements could hold the south along with his men long enough for the Larcener's assault to be delt with. To that end he began adding encouragement and pulling fatigue out of the troops fighting. With the renewed boost they seemed to be holding firmer, but it seemed like Larcener still had men to toss at them. Even with the determination of the forces there they would eventually be overrun by the sheer mass of bodies being thrown at them. He hated to do it but he decided it was time to reveal the storm of knives. Reaching out with the force he took hold of the nearly a hundred finger length metal spikes that had been stockpiled near the northern front and using the precise map the battle mediation provided him began to rain death on the enemy. The spikes slammed through soldier after soldier, bursting through vital organs, eyes, and throats in a red mist. They kept plowing through troops until eventually they got caught by something unyielding or were bent beyond use. Even as the number of spikes dwindled though so did Larceners men. As the furry of metal made it's way through the men they finally broke, whatever hold the Dark Jedi had on their minds broken by the pure primal terror of seeing their comrades fall dead, surrounded by flashing metal and pink mist.

As soon as the retreat was in full swing Everett pulled back the spikes, letting them fall haphazardly to the ground near the defensive barricades to the nort of the city. He was exhausted, barely able to maintain the battle meditation as his troops watched the retreat, waiting to see if the attack was fully broken, or if another wave was going to be incoming. Opening a comm channel to Ivoj the old Jedi spoke, not bothering to hide the tiredness in his voice.* ::If your men are still in a position to fight I need you to take the speeders at position Alpha two two and get to the other side of the city and reinforce Oswald. I need Seth and Samuel to keep an eye out east and west and everyone else's men are exhausted from the initial fighting in the north.:: *He knew the Highwaymen would be tired too, but of the three groups fighting in the north they had been the least engaged, and besides they were some of the heartiest troops he had available. Besides with a group of 5 Jedi reinforcing what he already had there he suspected the fighting might be done by the time they arrived, but he hadn't kept this city out of enemy hands this long without keeping men in motion and having backup plans for his backup plans.*

The five Jedi moved as one with grace and efficiency as they ambushed the first wave of invaders, striking them down in a matter of moments with an array of blues, greens, yellows, and whites decorating the area surrounding them. And with then when the additional benefit of another Jedi's battle meditation adding to their force meld, they were more than ready for the second wave when it came. Broon and Wila took off to the right side of the line to take care of a flanking force that had begun to sweep in. The remaining three stood at the center of the battle deflecting blaster bolts and cutting down anyone who made the unfortunate mistake of coming in too close.

Broon was clearly the more capable fighter of him and Wila so he took point in dealing with the flanking squad of foot soldiers while Wila took a more defensive position deflecting blaster fire and using the force to throw soldiers around. Broon's more offensive approach was able to thin out the herd so to speak much better than Wila, but it would have been much more difficult without her help.

However in the excitement of battle they were cut off from the rest of the group by yet more soldiers. Broon fought his way back to Wila as quickly as he could, finally reaching her side the two knew they had to fight their way back to their friends. They began the hard fight back cutting down soldier after soldier only to have more take their place.

Meanwhile Master Kaan, Xomi, and Poc were being pushed back by the increasing number of invaders. Inch by inch the line drew closer to the center of the city. While the three Jedi fought to take every inch back that they could. They didn't even see the heavy artillery until it was too late, Xomi was hit with a blast and sent flying across the battlefield. She landed several feet away, her body limp and smoking. The two remaining Jedi had no other choice than to retreat to cover leaving Xomi's body behind.

Broon and Wila felt the loss of their friend like knife in the heart. Wila's tear filled eyes met Broon's eyes in the heat of battle, remorse overtook his face as they let out a battle cry and with a force repulse sent the troops surrounding them flying off into other troops. This was their opportunity to close the gap between themselves, Master Kaan, and Poc.

Within a couple of minutes the two Jedi all had clear line of sight of Xomi's body. Just as a shot of the cannon that killed Xomi missed the two of them, hitting their own troops instead. Broon looked to Wila. "Go, join the others, I'll take care of that." She nodded hesitantly and ran toward Poc and Kaan's position while Broon headed the opposite way toward the canon.

He had to stay on the move, a second too long in the same place or the same line of fire and it was all over for the young Jedi. When he finally reached the cannon there was a trail of bodies behind him both from his blade and the missed shots by the weapon he now controlled. He took aim at the incoming troops and began firing toward then. The three Jedi in cover, seeing what had happened came out to retake the line and hold it.

On the Northern front a diminutive robed figure knelt next to one of the local volunteer soldiers who's leg had been broken by a piece of fallen debris; the jagged bone had torn free from the flesh around it, leaving the poor woman in excruciating pain and trapped by the debris on her leg. Tyor had already gently lifted the rubble off of her with the Force, setting it aside before moving his focus back to the injured soldier. Placing his small, furred left palm against the flesh of her thigh, he began by calming the panicked woman and siphoning away her pain long enough to produce a syringe of local anesthetic distilled from one of the many plants he grew aboard the "Wick Wanderer" from the folds of his Jawa robes which he quickly injected into her leg to numb the pain long enough for him to tend to her. Normally the Jedi healer preferred to use the Force to mitigate his patients' pain, if only to avoid the use of needles and the risk of side effects, but he needed to conserve his reserves as much as possible in order to help as many as he could. Once the anesthetic had done its job Tyor shifted his mental influence to the injury itself, maintaining his calming influence on her mind as he closed his eyes and began to bolster her body's natural immune system's efforts to fight off the infection which was already beginning to try and take root. 

As the microscopic battle shifted in her favor Tyor opened his eyes and returned the empty syringe to the folds of his robe before producing a worn but well maintained phrik scalpel. With a quick snap-hiss of his lightsabre the Jawa sterilized the tool before returning his blade to his hip and focusing on the injury. With a few minimal cuts he freed the tissue enough to gently guide the broken bone back into place with the Force before closing his eyes and shifting the scale of his focus back to the microscopic level as he began to carefully knit the torn flesh and rent, weeping blood vessels back together around the broken bone. Normally he'd have spent the time and energy to actually mend the bone, but as with the anesthetic he needed to be conservative with his healing even if it pained him to do so. Opening his eyes a few minutes later to a freshly closed, if still raw, scar, all that remained was to stabilize the still broken bone so that the woman could be safely transported. With barely a thought Tyor reached out to the bamboo rhizome which he had grown throughout the front line over the past several months, effortlessly encouraging a short shoot to burst from the ground in an instant to the proper length to serve as a splint.

With a quick thank you sent through the Force to the parent rhizome and assurances that he would be providing another round of proper fertilization to the area he ignited his lightsabre and cut the shoot off at the ground before bisecting it vertically and taking off the sharp tip at the top. Returning his sabre to his belt, he placed the two halves of the bamboo shaft around the injured leg and laid it gently on the ground before producing a small seed from a small pouch which hung on his hip. To most the various seeds within would likely be indistinguishable, while to a botanist with some time most would be identifiable, but to Tyor each of them sung with eager young life, ready to take root and grow into a plant as much an individual as any of the people in the galaxy. Using his left hand, the Jawa dug a small pit in the dirt beneath the injured leg before gently placing the seed into the prepared soil and moving the soil back over it with his right hand. He then closed his eyes and reached out to the tiny life within the seed, feeding it energy from the Force as it rapidly sprouted into a creeping ivy that over the course of the next minute brew to envelop the bamboo splint and secure it tightly in place. With one final burst of energy to ensure that the ivy had enough growth to continue spreading naturally, he cut the vines on the splint free from the main plant and rose, signaling the medical team to come and move the injured soldier to the makeshift field hospital which he had landed his ship next to before sterilizing the scalpel again with his lightsabre and returning it to the folds of his robes. 

Expanding his sphere of influence around him, Tyor felt that the most critically injured soldiers had either been stabilized and moved to the field hospital or had expired, a fact which saddened the small Jedi immensely at the thought of the lives which had been lost. Ever since he had left the sandy dunes of Tatooine years ago and discovered the Force and all of the incredible life forms across the galaxy Tyor had fallen in love with nature and the various ways in which life manifested across the vast reaches of space. The loss of any life pained him, even when it was a life twisted and warped by the Dark Side, and he had come to Serenno months ago to try and preserve as much life as he could. With a weariness born not of exhaustion but of grief, Tyor raised his right wrist to his mouth and spoke into the comm which was strapped to it, taking care not to let his weariness come through in his voice. "We have the most grievously injured soldiers stabilized and en route to the Northern field hospital Master Stone." The soft chattering of Jawaese could be faintly heard through the comms beneath the translation provided by the device strapped around Tyor's neck, a constant quirk of communicating with the small healer. "I am going to begin re-enforcing our defensive emplacements in case they mount another attack." With the update given the Jawa began making his way back towards the field hospital where his ship sat, leaving no sign of the injured soldier or the healing he had just performed saved for some disturbed soil and a young ivy planet which was already working to fill the field of death and carnage with new life. 

Once again his revolver clicked onto an empty power cell, this time though he did not have another to replace it nor were there any left close enough from the fallen foes near him. Thankfully, or regrettably depending on your line of thought his speeder had landed very near the body of one of the fallen Jedi defending the city. In their death their lightsaber had fallen out of their hands and rolled slightly out of the way. Scooping it up out of the dirt a blaster bolt flew right where his head had been not a moment before striking one of the Highwaymen in the back and killing him. Lifting his helmet he fought back the revulsion that threatened to turn into vomit in his mouth. This was no time for morals. The primary weapon of the Jedi may not be his favoured choice but he had trained in it. Without any grace or consideration he began to bat the bolts back towards his enemies the blue blade swinging left to right, up and down. Few found their mark, but it freed up some space for the rest of the men with him. If this was to be their last stand than so be it.

Not a moment to soon the firebombs rained down around them and the screams of the burning drowned out all the rest of the chaos around them. Through the flames flashed or red, blue, and green could be seen pouring down on the enemy lines. Raising the lightsaber in salute to the men who had saved their lives he fell to his knees and just sat there. The battle may still be raging in other parts of the city but in the immediate area they were fleeing. Sitting there he reached over and lay the lightsaber back in the hands of the fallen Jedi and placed them on their chest. Not one for prayer he silently said his thanks to the fallen Jedi for their help.

Bushfire I could kiss you.

Reaching into his belt he pulled out a flask he poured out a small amount for the fallen in this battle before taking a swig for himself. Passing it around to the other Highwaymen still standing once it was back in his hands he collapsed and just lay there staring at the sky.