[center][b]Aria Blair
Cathar[/b][/center]

The battle had been raging for hours before Aria and her team had even arrived. This was the second wave as the first was sent to establish an element of a hold for the beachfront. In the skies, the Mandalorian fleet defending the planet had been broken through yet still proved to be a capable opponent; taking down a few Republic ships in the battle above. How entrenched the Mandalorians were entrenched within the jungles of Cathar, no one knew for sure; but they knew the main outpost was within the primary city of Cathar itself. But, hundreds of anti-air defense systems prevented a surge strike at the heart.

They had to go the long way, through the hailstorm of fire on the beach, and then the deathtrap of the jungle.

Aria darted her head back and forth, surveying the destruction all around her. The sounds came back to her slowly, and then she heard a familiar voice barking over the explosions and screaming. Ken. She listened to him close, her heart beating frantically in her chest, yet his words soothed her. Immediately, Aria nodded to him in acknowledgement and found cover in a large crater where heavy blaster fire indented the earth. There were quickly made defensive palisades, scrapped up from ship debris shielding the troops. Heavy soldiers with durasteel shields also came out to form a protection barrier around Aria, but mostly because she was close to Major Athos.

Leon took priority to the Republic soldiers, seeing him as the man who could lead them amidst the frantic battle. And they needed it.

The Republic was getting butchered. Troops were falling from heavy chain gunfire from heavily defended turret placements at the high end of the beach at the tree-line of a vast jungle. 

Luck was on their side early on when one of the three placements was shattered into dust by a well-placed shot from a gunship – until that gunship was brought down in a flaming heap.

Her eyes adjusted to the sight, the hardest thing to absorb were familiar faces. She noticed one, two people she’d grown up with on Dantooine face down in the sand. Blood around them, burn marks where they’d been shot. Lightsaber hilts like stone, lifeless on the ground. Aria pushed them out of her mind, glancing to the two turret posts. She ignited her violet saber, entering into a fighter’s sense, but before she rushed foolishly; Aria caught glimpse of Alek leading a team of Jedi and Republic soldiers behind him.

In a fierce battle with a Mandalorian soldier, she saw Alek’s true power at work. He impaled him in the chest and let the crusader drop into a heap. Alek kept moving forward, unflinching. She’d heard the stories about him bringing down a criminal group on Tatooine. Killed them, but she didn’t know what it meant to kill. Alek did it with ease, and kept moving forward.

Perhaps that was the key, not to stand still, find the next problem and solve it. If she wasn’t so focused on everything else, she would have taken time to appreciate one of the most impressive feats performed with a lightsaber she’d ever seen. Alek talked about the power core of his personal weapon, and now she knew why. Alek cut clean through a vibrosword, the kind designed to prevent it from happening. But, the bright azure pulsing out of his saber burned with a flickering power not found in most Jedi’s sabers.

Aria blocked a blaster bolt coming her way, deflecting it off. She went over to Leon. “Major! Can you go with Alek and the heavy troopers and loop around the left towards that turret post?” She pointed out the plan, sweeping her hand over in the direction she intended. With heavy shields, Alek’s saber as a battering ram, and the Major, Aria believed they could take it out. “You’ll take heavy fire, but with them we can do a quick run and take the right side before they have time to re-focus!” She pointed at Ken, Anna, and Xeviiy. She intended to separate them into teams of speed and power.

It happened before Aria thought it would. Three Neo-Crusaders with their azure armor leaping over the palisade where a brief opening had come. Arren was too far from her position to provide support, but she began running to her student’s aid as quickly as possible. The warriors faced Ken, Xeviiy, and Aria alike. Their war cries pierced their defensive circle, and quickly after their vibroblades sung down upon them.

Aria had never killed someone in her life until that moment. A whirl of violet, deflecting the Mandalorian’s arcing strike away, and then a pirouette. Smooth, almost beautiful. But, the beauty was marred by a guttural choke of the clansman who took Aria’s sweeping blade across his neck. Throat slit, burned, he collapsed in front of her.