A loud boom sounded through the Ilo sky. A Jedi medical cruiser was now descending upon the remains of the crashed Halbert. On the ground, clone troopers were setting up camp and scanning the horizon for any sign of oncoming attack. The wind on the ground began to pickup as the ship grew closer to the ground. Upon hearing the noise, Gabrall, Hisoler, and Mathan emerged from the wreckage and were now looking at the descending ship.



The medical cruiser hit the ground with a soft thud and began to whistle as steam blew out from the machinery. The front ramp lowered and standing at the top was Melandi. She was dressed in a simple purple and white gown with white armor attachments on her forearms and shoulders. Her brown hair was tied back and blew gently in the wind. She started to walk down the ramp and looked around the crash site. Her face was stern as she crossed her arms and looked to Gabrall in disapproval.

“For real, Zhantos?” said Melandi. Her eyebrow was raised as she stared at Gabrall.

“What?” shrugged Gabrall. He looked to Mathan with a confused look.

“You know what! That move you pulled was completely reckless. You, your padawan, and all your troops could have been killed!” Melandi shouted at Gabrall. Her voice grew loud and powerful as it echoed through the air.

“Well, we landed on the planet and look, we are all perfectly fine,” Gabrall smiled and showed Melandi the crash site. Ten wounded clone troopers were lying on the ground next to the crashed ship. They moaned and coughed in pain. Gabrall’s smile turned into a nervous smirk. He turned to back to look at Melandi. She rolled her eyes and sighed as she began to treat the wounded clones with the Force. Mathan and Hisoler laughed as they walked back into the Halbert.

Gabrall turned around and looked back to the medical cruiser. Descending the ramp were four clone troopers and following behind was a female Jedi dressed in the classical brown robes. She had straight black hair that was long and her face was light with black almond shaped eyes. She smiled as she saw her old friend and began to wave her hand high in the air. Gabrall waved back and said hello, “Gadina Kiim. How are you?”

“Hey. I’m good. So did you hear? A master Jedi crashed his ship.” She laughed as she joked with Gabrall. He laughed back, but stopped suddenly as a felt an unknown behind Gadina. He looked behind her and saw a young girl dressed in a large brown cloak and a yellowish shirt. She wore white gloves and was holding one arm behind her back. Her hood shadowed her face, but her wavy brown hair was blowing in the wind.

“Who is this youngling?” asked Gabrall.

“She belongs to Melandi,” said Gadina. Upon hearing her name, Melandi got up from healing and turned to the other Jedi, “My new padawan, Cath Lunastar.”

“A padawan? Wow, I didn’t think you wanted one,” Gabrall smiled as he looked towards the young Jedi.

“She was assigned to Melandi. She didn’t really have a choice,” Gadina whispered in her soft voice and laughed slightly.

Melandi looked to Gadina sternly. Her voice sounded a bit irritated as she spoke, “I chose to accept her as my padawan. She has great potential and is incredibly skilled with stealth and reconnaissance. With my help, Cath will one day become a great knight.”

Gabrall looked down at Cath, “Well okay then. Hello, Ms. Lunastar. Welcome to Ilo. I am Jedi Master Gabrall Zhantos. I’m a old friend of your master.” Cath looked up and her face was revealed from under her hood. She had large brown eyes with pale skin. Her face was timid and shy as she looked at the other Jedi. Melandi also looked to her padawan and coughed. “Say hello, padawan.” Cath bowed her head and spoke in a quiet voice, “Hello, master Jedi.”

Gabrall smiled and faced Gadina and Melandi. “Thank you for coming. We are really going to need your help on this mission as you saw from the our entry.”

“Yes, you are. We scanned city as we entered the atmosphere,” said Melandie, “The entire city is empty of any signs of life, but filled with battle droids. We also detected a small base on the plains near the city. Now, I have no idea what the Separatists are doing, but we need to do something quick. We need to find the people of this planet.”

Mathan ran out of the wreckage and yelled to his master, “Master, P24 said there are 20 battle droids heading towards our direction and coming fast!”

All four Jedi turned towards Mathan and the Halbert. Gabrall spun around and began to order commands to the troopers. “We can’t let them find this ship. I want 20 troopers to remain here and prepare to engage the enemy. The rest of you get to those hills and keep hidden. We’ll try to get around the droids and flank them from behind.”

“What about the wounded clones?” asked Gadina as her face became worried.

“Get them on our ship now!” Melandi activated the communicator on her wrist. “Captain, we are loading all wounded onto the ship. As soon as they are all on, take off and remain cloaked in orbit.” The communicator beeped as it shut off. All around, the clones were following their orders and getting into position. The five Jedi gathered at the base of a nearby hill. Gabrall looked back to the ships and nodded his head to Hisoler. The captain put had hand on P24’s head and nodded back.

Gadina smiled slightly and spoke to the group, “You all ready?” Mathan reached down and grabbed his two shotos from his belt. “I am.” Melandie looked out to the hilly field and could see the fires rising from Dastra. She could now hear the heavy clanking of the oncoming droids. Without looking she gave an order to Cath, “Padawan, scout ahead and see if you can get behind them.”

“Yes, master.” The young Jedi spoke softly and pulled her hood further over her head. Instantly, she disappeared into thin air was gone. Melandie smiled slightly as she looked to Gabrall. The Jedi master’s eyes squinted ever so slightly. “Mathan, the same.”

“Got it.” Mathan spun around and launched forward with incredible speed. He turned into a blur of color as he ran over the hill.

“Your padawan is fast, Gabrall,” said Melandi.

“Thank you. Yours is pretty good, too. I see she truly is gifted with cloaking abilities,” Gabrall smiled back at Melandi. Behind the hill, the marching of the oncoming droids was now very loud. They were right next to them. The three Jedi became silent and grabbed their lightsabers in their hands. They could now hear the droids speaking and listened intently.

“What are we looking for?” asked one droid.

“We are looking for the people from the city. The mistress wants them destroyed.” The beige droids continued forward and headed for the crashed ship. The blind blew quickly on the left side of the droids as Mathan ran past them unnoticed. Behind the droids, Cath flashed and disappeared again. A droid in the back looked behind and saw nothing. It turned back and continued on.

In front of the marching droids, the top of the Halbert could now be seen. A droid in the front yelled back to the captain. “Sir, I think that there’s a crashed Republic cruiser up on the hill there.”

“What!?” cried the captain, “Your circuits must be lose. Let me see.” The battle droid made his way through the group and looked out onto the hill. “Contact the Mistress. Tell her we found something.”

“Roger, roger,” said another droid as he activated his communicator. As he raised the small machine to his head, the communicator started to rise out of the droid’s hands into the air. “Uh, sir.”

Before the other droids could turn around, the communicator zoomed through the air and stopped suddenly a few feet away. It hovered in the air and spun slowly. Beneath it stood Gabrall, Melandi and Gadina. They stood in their stances ready for battle. The communicator dropped into Melandi’s hand. She shifted her eyes to group of droids. She shook her head and spoke, “I don’t think so, droid. Now!”

From the hill, blaster fire began to rain down on the group. The droids screamed and scattered in all directions from the surprise attack. The knights ignited their lightsabers and charged towards the droids. Gabrall run through directly into the middle of the crowd with his silver lightsabers held outward and sliced four droids in half. To his left Gadina slashed her viridian lightsaber and took off the head of another battle droid.

“It's Jedi! Full retreat!” yelled one of the droids. Immediately they all turned around began to run back towards the city. Melandi threw her purple lightsaber high into the air. It spun wildly and turned into a glowing purple disc. She threw her hand forward and sent the lightsaber flying through the droids. As it flew, it beheaded five battle droids and was sent through the chest of another. The droids pushed forward in retreat, but were stopped in their tracks. Mathan stood before them with his blue shotos ignited and pointed towards the group. Next to him, Cath appeared out of thin air and ignited a pink colored lightsaber. Mathan shook his head to tell the droids that they had no escape and the two padawans began their attack. Together they slashed their lightsabers in the air and knocked down most of the remaining droids to the ground with the Force. Mathan dashed forward towards a droid that was still standing. He raised his sabers and repeatedly banged on the droid as if it were a drum. His strikes were so fast that they could not be seen were it not for the blue light of his saber. The poor droid was split into dozens of pieces and was left on the ground. Mathan looked down at the droid and smiled slightly. From behind him, Cath had flipped high into the air over Mathan and sliced another battle droid straight down the middle.

Within seconds, the twenty droids were lying on the ground in pieces. The five Jedi stood around the remains and deactivated their lightsabers in unison. Gabrall turned around and saw Hisoler running down the hill towards the Jedi.

“Good job, sir. Those clankers didn’t have a chance,” said Hisoler in celebration of their small victory.

“We try, my friend. We try,” said Gabrall, “Is everything okay up there?”

“Sir, everyone’s fine and the med-cruiser made into orbit,” replied the captain. R2-P24 rolled up behind the Jedi and began to beep wildly. Hisoler looked down at the droid and back to the Jedi. “Sir, one more thing. During the battle, P24 detected some sort of signal coming from the hills just north of our current position. He seems to think that it’s an emergency beacon and that it may be the Ilo.”

Gadina looked at the small droid and to Gabrall, “P24 is one of the best droids in the galaxy. I trust him. It has to be the Ipo.”

“I do too Gadina and so does Hisoler. Our mission was to help the Ipo. This may be our only chance. Now let’s head out.”

Hisoler saluted to the Jedi and shouted to the remaining clones by the Halbert. “Troops! Move out!” The five Jedi placed their lightsabers back on their holders and walked over the hill. Gadina looked down at the little droid and patted his domed head.

“Lead the way little buddy.” P24 beeped and began to lead the way towards the people of Ilo.