The pike hissed out the word, Jedi, and for a moment you were frozen in time. Your worst fear had come, your past had caught up with you and it endangered your friends. You must had looked ridiculous frozen in fear, for as your thoughts raced you could do nothing.

Hunter had his hands around your face shouting your name above the racket as the imperial landing crafts were close by. He finally brought you back to reality and pulled you back behind the crates with the others.

"How could this have happened?" Rex asked, immediately going back into military mode.

"They recognized me from a long time ago, a mission before the clone wars," you explained.

"Well what do we do now?" Echo asked.

"We run, obviously," Rafa answered.

"We can get in the ships and get out of here before they actually land," Trace explained.

You sighed, "if we attempt to fly out of here, the star destroyer will just shoot our craft down. There is only one thing we can do now - fight."

"We cannot hope to defeat the empire, we are severely outnumbered," Tech added, "I have ran a scan of their landing crafts, there are at least 100 soldiers in them."

Everyone was silent, weighing one impossible option over the next. You could tell the crafts were about ready to land, if you were going to do something, it had to be now.

Surprisingly, it was Hunter who broke the silence, "if this is going to be where it ends, we might as well take as many stormtroopers with us as we can."

The others hesitated, but quickly smiled, "let's make the end memorable, boys!" Rex said with a shout.

After their excitement weaned off, they all looked to you, even Cid, Rafa and Trace looked to you for leadership.

You smiled at them, then crouched down so the others could gather above you. "Alright, we are going to move these crates in wave formation, I want 2 crates 30 yards up and every 10 yards behind until you reach the ships, the ships are our final fall back position," you explained, "Wrecker, pull anything out of both ships that can be used as a barrier and supplement the crates with them, we should have 3 sets of crates in each wave." You watched as Wrecker went to move things out of the ships then continued, "Hunter and Rex, you take the right side of the waves, use detonators and blasters to keep them at bay as long as possible. Tech and Echo, you do the same from the left side," you instructed. "Cid, keep everyone stocked on ammo and fill in where needed. I'll run up the middle of each wave and cover when we need to fall back," you ordered. Then you turned to the girls, "Rafa, Trace, I need you to sneak around the back and disable the landing crafts so if we have to make a quick escape, they can't follow us. Take Omega with you, but this is a stealth mission, you disable the crafts, then get back here and hide out in the ships," you instructed, "the three of you do not need to see a battle."

Everyone nodded and ran to begin their assignments, everyone helping to move the barriers in place.

"What's my assignment, general?" Wrecker asked once everyone else was in position.

"Run up the left side with Hunter and Rex," you said. Then you tossed him a few extra detonators, "and blow things up."

Wrecker secured the explosives to his pack and smiled at you before running off to the fist barrier.

The empire had just landed and moved out of the craft, you watched them deliver a large sum to the pikes before the last of the pikes boarded their craft and left the scene.

You watched as the command troopers established a position directly in front of you. Your heart sank when you realized who one of them was. "Eyes up," you said into your com device, "Crosshair is with them."

"He really has abandoned all of us," Hunter replied.

"Look at his armor, he is full imperial now," Tech added.

You waited a few more minutes as the empire organized itself, then saw a pair of troopers walk out from the ranks and stand twenty yards from your first barrier.

Crosshair was with what seemed to be a commander, dressed in officer uniform. It was the officer that spoke, "there need not be bloodshed tonight," he said, his voice carrying farther than you expected, "we are looking for the Jedi and the girl you abducted from Kamino. Hand them over and we will leave in peace."

"I told you they would not agree to such terms," you heard Crosshair say, "they have all grown soft."

"Yes they may be soft," the officer agreed, "but that is why I believe the Jedi will not allow others to die for her."

Crosshair scoffed, "that may have been true before, but she will have taken to the girl from Kamino, they will all die to protect her."

Without hesitation you stood out from behind the crate you were behind and addressed the officer and Crosshair, "have I really become that predictable, Crosshair?"

Crosshair opened his mouth to say something but the officer interrupted, "Ah, Jedi general (Y/N), lovely to finally meet you."

You held your head high, "I can't say as I have ever heard of you," you replied with a hint of sarcasm in your voice.

The officer nodded to you, "I am Vice Admiral Rampart of the newly formed Galactic Empire."

You refused to acknowledge him as an equal and instead continued, "sorry, but I don't recognize the rankings of the Empire."

Rampart did not miss a beat, "you disappoint me, general, I had expected the kindness and selflessness of a jedi."

You shrugged your shoulders, "the jedi fell, the one last piece of the puzzle that allowed your empire to rise," you explained, "those kinds of behaviors fell with the order."

"Then what is it you have become?" Rampart asked, genuine curiosity in his voice.

You shrugged again, "right now? The person standing in the way of what you want."

Rampart shook his head, "I had hoped we could walk out of this as friends, without the need for nasty battles."

"You knew when you came here that it would not be that easy," you replied, "it may be my time to die, but I will be taking you with me."

Rampart sighed, "this is my final offer," he paused, "you and your clones may continue on as you were, you need only surrender the girl to me."

You thought for a moment, then took a few steps forward, away from the safety of the crate. "You see, there is one thing about me that has not died with the Jedi order, the same thing the empire has seemed to forget already," you continued to close the distance between you and Rampart. You could see Crosshair out of the corner of your eye, fingers twitching on his gun, but you ignored him, keeping your focus on Rampart, who seemed unfazed by you.

"The empire has forgotten the unity of the republic, the fact that everyone looked out for one another," you explained, "I will do what I must to protect my squad."

Rampart seemed to confuse your sentiment and smiled, "I am glad we agree, please bring me the girl."

You shook your head, "the only problem is that that girl is a member of my squad," you said, gripping your saber tightly, "and I will protect her or die trying."

You yelled out the last words as a battle cry and whipped your cloak off with a flourish, immediately igniting your lightsaber and blocking shots from the throng of troopers. Out of the corner of your eye you saw Crosshair shielding Rampart and moving him behind the ranks of troopers.

You quickly made your way back behind the safety of the crates as the clones laid down cover fire. "Rafa, Trace, have you made it to the transports yet?" you asked into your communicator.

A few seconds later Trace answered, "we are almost there."

You peeked out from behind the crate again and saw the onslaught of troopers ahead of you all firing and getting closer. "Wrecker, time to blow some things up," you shouted as he was close enough to hear you.

"Yes!" he shouted excitedly, throwing a few explosives into the ranks of the troopers. Unfortunately, it did little to slow their advance and they were now close to wave one's crates.

"Tech, did you rig up these crates?" you asked into the communicator.

"Yes, general," he replied, "however, I am unsure how much damage they will do."

"We'll have to hope for the best," you responded, "everyone fall back to wave two, I'll cover you." You shouted before standing up from the crate and igniting your saber. You expertly blocked the bullets as your squad fell back to the safety of the second wave.

A few minutes later Hunter's voice came over the communicator, "we're all here," he said, "fall back, we'll cover you."

You nodded and pushed off from the crate and landed directly behind the second wave of crates. Cid was crouched behind the crate when you landed, "this is a great mess you got us into."

You chuckled, "actually this was your mess." Cid smiled at you but said nothing.

"Alright Tech, wait for their first 3 lines to break the first wave and blow it," you instructed.

"What exactly is Goggles up to?" Cid asked, an amused smile on her face.

You smiled at her, "you'll see." After the first three lines of troopers had broken through the crates, Tech hit a button on his datapad and a second later all of the crates went up in flames and created a fire barrier.

You did not hesitate, "take out the troopers on this side," you shouted watching the first 3 lines fall quickly in the confusion of the flames.

After the troopers fell and the fire was still burning, you had all gathered in the center behind some crates. "Nice party trick," Echo mused, patting Tech's shoulder.

"It is interesting what a little rocket fuel and some time can do," Tech responded with a smile.

You sighed, "how long will it burn?"

Tech shrugged, "I am unsure, but I would say we have a bit of time."

You nodded, "Rafa, Trace," you said to your communicator, "any update."

Surprisingly, it was Omega's voice that responded, "we entered the second transport, the first one has been disabled," she explained, "they will have to recycle the fuel before they can even take off."

You smiled although she could not see it, "nice work, make it quick and get back here, okay?"

"Copy that," she replied. You could tell she was excited to be a part of something and had finally let go of her fears.

Hunter knelt down beside you, "this is only going to buy us so much time, what's our next play?"

You shook your head, "I don't have one."

Hunter leaned his forehead against yours. You leaned into him and did not want to move, but all too soon you could hear the marching of boots again.

You looked up, "the fire is weaning down, they'll be able to cross soon."

"And we'll be ready," Hunter resolved. He stood up confidently, but there was this feeling like a pit in your stomach as he did so. You turned quickly and locked onto the figure of Crosshair from across the field, leveling his gun at Hunter who was now unprotected.

"No!" you shouted diving at Hunter's frame. But it was too late, you heard the zap of a far off gunshot and the sickening crunch of it hitting flesh.