[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/6jqfcrLh.png[/img][url=https://starwarsintrocreator.kassellabs.io/#!/BLaO-qW10l0YdZ9xDOhr][h3][sub]A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away...[/sub][/h3][/url][/center]
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[indent][indent][color=lightgray][i]"Breathe Charuri."[/i]

Her master's wisdom clinging to her ears Charuri released a breath she didn't realize she was holding. Around her, the hangar bay of the [i]Acclamator I-class assault ship the Reclamation[/i] had been overrun with moving bodies. Starfighters taking off and landing in waves. Refueling and maintenance teams rushing performing an interact dance as they bobbed and weaved around one another to get each and every ship out on schedule. All the while there was the constant drumming as the quad-lasers from a [I]Lucrehulk-class battleship[/I] slammed into the [I]Reclamation's [/I] shields. Followed by the rumble of the [i]Reclamation[/i]'s own turbolasers as they fired a volley back in response lighting the space above Ossus ablaze.

[I]Ossus[/I], Charuri regarded looking up at the blue-green of the planet that dominated the view above them, the interior of the [I]Reclamation[/I] separated from the cold and hungry void of space only by a thin transparent veil of shimmering plasma. Charuri had read about Ossus; everyone did during their youngling days it was up there with Ilum with being the closest thing the Jedi has to a holy site. (Though unlike Ilum not many ever traveled to Ossus save for members of the ExplorCorps, the urge to delve deep into ancient Jedi history was not a favorite field these days amongst the Order.) A world that was nearly destroyed in the crucible of war so many thousands of years ago, but Ossus survived and the life on the world steadily began to regrow and replenish.

[I] And who are we again to bring ruin once more? [/i] Charuri questioned in her own contemplative thoughts.

"Ma'am" Her attention snapped upward, a clone trooper was looking back at her. He was dressed in the swirled dark green and brown recon armor of a scout trooper, the distinctive square helmet clutched beneath one arm against his torso. Like all clones, he carried the face of his genetic predecessor the Mandalorian bounty hunter Jango Fett. Yet there was a single spark of identity told through the single short mohawk that he carried his bleached blonde hair in. His expression was stern but relaxed as he raised a brow at the young Jedi.

"Yes, Twoshoes?" Charuri asked the Clone who gestured towards the LAAT parked behind them.

"The boys just about finished packing," Twoshoes explained, "we are ready to depart when you are Ma'am." 

"Lead the way Captain," Charuri answered.

With the snapping together of feet and a quick nod of his head, Twoshoes made a quick about-face towards the LAAT. There clustered around a group of empty crates were five other clones dressed in the similar green and brown armor. They spoke amongst themselves as they cleaned and double-checked their weapons the occasional well-timed joke sending the entire group into a fit. Charuri wondered if they found it strange that all their laughter sounded the same, a reverbing echo that seemed to only get louder and louder, she did sometimes. The group began to calm down as Twoshoes and Charuri approached. Posture and general air aligning itself from friends joking around to professional soldiers with ease. 

"Alright boys," Twoshoes announced propping one leg up on one of the crates, "you all know our mission: we fly down there, we rendezvous with Commander Reath and the assault team and we take out those AA Guns. Any Questions?" 

[b]"No sir!" [/b]

Twoshoes grinned in approval taking his helmet in both hands and locking it in position. The squad began to file into the waiting LAAT. Like the squad it was carrying the dropship was painted in the same tones of forest green and brown. The only breakage in the pattern near the cockpit where there was a vibrant splash of orange in the form of a reclined Twi'lek dancer with a flirtatious smile that had been painted on. Following closely behind, Charuri grasped an outstretched hand from Twoshoes who easily pulled her up and into the main cabin. The door closed behind her sealing with a hiss as the entire cabin was pressurized. 

[i]"Bantha 1 to Reclamation command"[/i] A voice came crackling into the cabin, the audio from the cockpit being piped in [i]"Repeat Bantha 1 to Reclamation command."[/i]

[i]"Go Bantha 1." [/i]

[i]"Requesting permission to launch"[/i]

Charuri felt the metal plating beneath her feet begin to rumble as the repulsor engine was kicked on. Twoshoes and his squad began to anchor themselves into place with the large clips that hung from the ceiling of the cabin. Charuri followed suit taking the clip that dangled above her and attached it to her robes. As a secondary measure, she also reached up and grabbed one of the handles above her.

[i]"Permission granted Bantha 1. Good luck!"[/i]

The entire cabin lurched as the LAAT lifted from the ground. A buzzer rang out through the tiny space as the running light shifted from an easy green to a harsh red that filled the entire cabin. Charuri closed her eyes and breathed as the LAAT began to move taking its position with the two other LAATs that made up Bantha Squadron. Slowly the dropship began to tilt upward and upon finding the precise angle began to accelerate.

As they left the [I]Reclamation's[/I] gravity field, Charuri began to feel her feet began to slightly lift off the ground before the LAAT's inboard gravity generator pulled them back against the floor. Almost immediately the ship began to pull a hard right to avoid a barrage of blaster fire. Another rumble begin flight as another starfighter screamed across the top of the dropship. 

"Hopefully they are as terrible shots as you Torque" Commented one of the clones as he readjusted the optic on his DC-15x sniper rifle.

"Love you to Scratch" Torque grumbled as the cabin began to be filled with nervous laughter as the cabin continued to rumble. 

Charuri closed her eyes trying her best to block out the noise. Falling away from the shaking cabin with each breath. Her vision began to fade replaced only with the tug and pull of the Force. There were the clones that surrounded her not only in the ship but in the entire field of combat, hundreds of souls all joining together like the largest choir in the world as they each worked as smaller cogs in a bigger machine. There was also the pull of Ossus itself, the planet, despite the death and the horror it had experienced in its past still practically breathed with the force, it was almost magnetizing in the way it Charuri felt pulled towards it. But there was another feeling as well, it hung over the rest like a heavy fog that seemed to drain and dilute the colors of the rest, the dark side. It was still growing stronger and stronger as the war pulled on and here in the violence that surrounded her, Charuri could feel it resonate clear around her.

[i]"Beginning descent"[/i]

The crackle of the comms cut its way into Charuri's mind breaking her concentration as the LAAT began to pitch downward. The rumbling began to increase as they began atmospheric reentry, the shaking growing more and more intense until Charuri could feel it in her bones. Heat began to radiate upward through her boots, the thermal shielding cooking away as it dispersed the heat so that they didn't end up cooking. Just as Charuri began to doubt the Rothana engineers that had bolted the thing together waiting for the whole ship to be ripped up by the friction, the shaking stopped as the LAAT began to level out.

[i]"Welcome to Ossus boys! Now, hold on tight!"[/i]

The atmosphere was an entirely different monster than space. Up there you had to infer everything that was happening to you, the lack of air meaning there was no sound only the vibration of the metal around them. Atmosphere by contrast was [b]loud[/b]. Almost immediately the grumble and roar of the repulsor engine beneath them began to fill the cabin battling the sound of air rushing past as the dropship began to pick up speeds of 600+ kilometers per hour. There was the thud and scream as the mass-driver missile launcher fired below them strafing ground targets below them. And in response, there was the roar from Separatist AA Emplacements as volley after volley of laser fire flew by the LAAT trying to land on target. 

[i]"This is Bantha 3! This is Bantha 3! I've been hit! I've been hit! Arghzkkt---" [/i]

Charuri was nearly thrown from her feet as the LAAT swerved hard to miss colliding with the steadily expanding fireball that was once its compatriot. Charuri gripped the handle tightly trying her best to just breathe and stay calm. It was hard sitting there and just trying to wait out a bad situation that you couldn't really help with it all. The running lights in the cabin flickered for a moment as a round of anti-air managed to hit its mark connecting with the side of the LAAT causing a shower of red sparks as the blast shield flickered and failed.

"Another hit like that and we are dead before we hit the ground" Torque commented checking his weapon for the twelfth time during the descent.

"We all appreciate your endless optimism and skills of observation Torque, truly." Twoshoes quipped back but there was no laughter this time. 

Charuri ended up feeling it before anything else like she just pressed her fingers into a hot stove. "Hold on!"

She shouted as another volley of fire connected headlong into the cockpit of the LAAT. A yell and static began to fill the intercom as the entire dropship began to drop downward immediately. She winced in pain as she was thrown into the dropship wall as the rapidly descending ship crashed into a tree and ricocheted off. 

Almost automatically Charuri began to pull herself into a hibernation trance. The blaring alarms of the falling apart dropship, the yells of the clones, and the whine of the failing repulsor engine all begin to fade away. To those around her, the Jedi seemed to have just closed her eye and her body gone limp held aloft only by the metal clipped that she had attached to her robes. A moment later the LAAT crashed into the ground

----

When Charuri opened her eyes, the world around her was turned upside down, the floor of the cabin somehow in the crash ended up in the air. She still hung suspended the clip holding her in place as her feet dangled limply in the air. She grunted as she struggled to reach the clip. Eventually, she gave up and withdraw the lightsaber from her belt pointing it upward towards the cable and engaged one of the halves. A brilliant flash of green filled the darkened space of the cabin as the lightsaber ignited cutting through the cable. 

Catching herself as she fell, Charuri checked herself over. The hibernation trance seemed to have done the trick, forcing her body to go limp so that when the collision occurred that it would do the least damage to her as possible. She was definitely bruised but nothing was broken and that was certainly something of an accomplishment.

She looked around the wreckage of the cabin, daylight spilling in through a large jagged crack that had ripped open during the fall. She saw the limp form of Twoshoes in the corner, and she quickly rushed over, bruised body yelling in protest. Checking his vitals, she thankfully found a pulse, he was still alive just knocked unconscious in the fall. She quickly went around checking the other members of the squad all in similar condition. 

"Well, this won't do..." Charuri muttered to herself as she looked around at the wreckage around her. "Wait a second!"

Quickly Charuri stumbled over to the closet clone by her that being Scratch and quickly removed his helmet. "Come on, Come on. You gotta still work."

She placed the helmet on her head and checked on the onboard HUD. Vitals...Motion sensor... Ammo counter...Communications! Charuri almost did a little dance when she saw that the long-range communicator was still marked as functional. Pressing the button on the side of the helmet, she began to speak trying to ease the excitement out of her voice.

[center][b][i]To all secure Republic channels. Repeat to all Secure Republic channels. This is Jedi Commander Charuri Rol, my gunship has been shot down. I'm in need of immediate assistance. My coordinates are... [/i][/b][/center][/color][/indent][/indent]