Three to one was not the best odds, but he was stuck with the hand dealt by fate and the force.
His former masters words echoed through his mind as Alec threw caution to the wind and gave himself fully into the force.
He trusted the force, and let it work through him as part of his mind seemed to watch the maelstrom.
Don't think! Do!
Simple instruction, but something that he had relied upon more times since being sent from the temple.
He had once believed that it was because he was wrong somehow, something that they didn't want to deal with.
It was something that he'd been forced to come to terms with, and Alec realized that he was never the right kind of person to be a Jedi.
Crimson blades swirled around him as he tucked and rolled forwards, plowing into the center darksider before pushing upwards into a flip and spin while firing with both pistols in a flurry of blaster bolts all about before landing in a crouch while rushing in once more.
Images flashed before his eyes as he blocked one of his foes arms, the momentary skin to skin contact letting him unleash one of the skills he had not used since the interrogation that had horrified his master.
Every disease that he had learned to treat was something he could mimic through the force, or at least the symptoms, and judging from the frenzied screaming his foe suddenly was full of, he'd managed to pull the stunt off, and the mans arm was rapidly darkening and seeming to rot, but he hadn't time to congratulate himself before the remaining deuce of foes came at him.
Alec twirled, positioning himself directly between the two and rolling between the blades that almost howled for his life.
He could feel the force throbbing through everything as he seemed to dance amidst that which cried for his death before dropping in a low crouch as the two weapons locked above his head, giving him another moment to go offensive, firing both blasters low and just beneath the belt of one while a spinning kick tripped the other.
Both force users retreated at least a dozen steps from him with some difficulty, but their own assault was not without damage as well, signified by the pieces of Katarn armor falling to the pavement where the lightsabers had sliced through the plasteel as if it weren't even there.
He felt the force surge and attacked, not by closing in on the pair, but tearing into the city itself and with a surge of effort tore through the supports of one of the more damaged structures and toppled it into another, setting off a chain reaction of collapsing and crashing buildings, showering the street in rubble as he went vertical, moving through the falling rubble as easily as he had on the ground with the two, injured, dark jedi in rapid pursuit.
A blur of darkness and motion was the only warning he'd gotten before a statue that he belatedly identified as of Palpatine came plowing through the falling wreckage at him followed by yet another of the red lightsaber wielding crazies.
"Well," he commented with a grunt while feeling the rush of obsidian passing a hairsbreadth from him, "Did you spend your originality quota on that double bladed toy of yours?"
The only response he got from that was being kinetically slammed to the ground hard enough to bounce.
"And," Alec added with a wince after a brief pause due to yet another lunging at him after he'd kicked off of what used to be the lightning rod of a taller structure, "Is this a yes to the cloning theory?"
xXx
"What the..." Fade yelled as he brought his craft in low as the city seemed to begin tearing itself apart beneath them.
"Sithspawn," Ahsoka commented as the battle came into view ahead of them, dark jedi fighting someone through the street.
"Well," the recon pilot commented as he stabilized his shields and readied the concussion missiles in the remaining tubes, "Seems like we get to help even the odds a bit here."
A brief pause as the HUD lit up, "Take the controls, I'll use the flyswatter."
He paused for a moment while something very large rocketed past to impale a water storage tank some distance behind them.
"And that was?" he asked with a blink.
"A statue," the jedi answered with a confused tone, "I think."
"Oh goodie," Fade muttered, "And I thought we were the ones with the heavy weapons."
"Slight change of plans," Ahsoka ordered, "Retain control, get me close and prepare to reseal the cockpit."
"Reseal the..." he began to question when the togruta flipped the release and leaped from the starfighter, "Oh, that."
"Perfect," Fade continued to mutter, "Just perfect, now I'm talking to myself."
His commentary stopped just long enough to fire missile at a target of opportunity.
"Rex'll kill me," the clone pilot commented as he banked into a side street, listening to windows shatter at his passage, "If the shrinks don't do it for him."
"Fade," came the comms a fraction of a second later.
Well, it seemed like Rex would win that race.
"Yeah boss?"
"What the hell are you doing?"
"The Jedi ordered me to convey her to the surface," he responded, "And she just left."
"Sensors say you haven't landed."
"She decided that an active entrance into the fight was more her style it seems," was the best response that didn't directly state that he let Jedi Tano take a flying leap out of a starfighter at full attack speed and relatively high up, "I'm attempting to try my hand at close air support."
The groan coming from the fleets leader was rather distinctive.
xXx
Epsilon grunted slightly as the magnetic grapples on his boots pulled him up against the deck seconds after Alpha and Ventress had gone ahead into the breach.
Comms silence was in effect for those in the attack, but he could tell that those two were still communicating somehow.
A slight shudder ran down his spine at that thought, he'd read about the exploits of both of them, and now with the trail of destruction carved through the Interdictors corridors, those tales were no exaggeration.
"We have full control of the core," came the comment from one of the younger clones, a tech, "The ship is ours."
The younger man blinked, "Sensors report that the Guardian has been destroyed."
"She was a good ship," he stated in response, "Did she stay on course?"
"Yes, but the target is not dead, the enemy commander apparently ordered some of his destroyers to ram her when she got to close to be killed by guns."
"Well then," Epsilon stated as the hatches sealed around them, "Change this crafts designator on the friendly IFF with her code."
"Understood," came the response, "As a side not, she did take a Victory, two Imperators, and a half-dozen corvettes with her on that run, at least if you count those caught in the detonation when her reactor went critical."
"Good," the old clone captain responded, "Let them fear the Guardian."
xXx
Blasterfire burned the sky as the clone troopers charged out of their drop pods.
Fives threw himself to the side as a grenade detonated, tucking in his shoulder and rolling even as his finger compressed the trigger and sent a suitable response at the one who had thrown it.
He felt relaxed as the familiar situation of the battlefield carried him into the correct mindset while hearing orders yelled in the distance, Denal's crew in the second pod clearing their own area to allow the ground forces to land to take the area until they could finish the recovery of the insertion team.
A scream from one of his brothers prompted his own shout, "Get a medic over here, we've got wounded!"
"E-Web," came the yell from one of the others.
"Sniper, take their heavy weapons down!"
An echoing roar as the first of the LAAT/i's flashed past overhead, weapons burning into the Imperial ranks before the gunship exited sight, but the engines strained into a high-G turn to pass across the ground forces once more.
Dust flowed and cleared with the rushing back drafts of the aircraft and explosions from grenades forcing the troopers on both sides to rely on the helmet packages rather than normal sight.
Suddenly it was clear for just long enough for him to catch a glimpse of a TIE rocketing in only to be ripped apart by the surface guns.
"Troopers," he ordered while discarding an empty power cell in favor of a fresh one in his rifle, "Charge!"
"Sarge!" came the frantic yell as he started running for the enemy, "AT-ST supporting them!"
"Sith," he hissed, "No choice, we still need those positions!"
A moments pause as the chicken walker stepped from the ruins and turned towards his men and him.
"Incoming!"
xXx
Bravo Squad dove close to the enemy Star Destroyer, maintaining formation.
"Alright," Brand whistled as his shields flashed on a near hit from a turbolaser bolt, "Break formation, take out any emplacements you can get."
Calls of affirmation came from all three others in his squadron.
"Remember, call it in if you get an eyeball on you."
"Lousy hosts these boys are," Thorne chuckled as he fired again and again at one of the towers before rolling to one side in order to avoid a missile launch.
"Well," came the answer from Slammer, "I guess it's up to the best squadron in the fleet to teach them the manners."
"Cut the chatter," Brand stated, "Keep your mind in the game boys."
xXx
Twitch blinked as he listened in on the comms, "Guys, the assault squads are having walker trouble."
"Well," Hammer muttered as the world outside seemed to turn white for an instant, "Scratch one depot, so lets go help."
"Tank," Dyre yelled from his position, "Bring us about, lets see how the Imps deal with one of these babies."
"Is that a tank?" Hammer added from his position as the world returned to focus.
"Hey guys," Tank responded with far to much cheer to be healthy, "I think those things can be used as ramps!"
"Tank," Dyre commented in a strangely calm voice as the entire vehicle jerked wildly, "If we survive this, I'm going to kill you!"
"If I don't get to him first," Hammer muttered in response.
xXx
"Glad you could make it to the party," Alec quipped as Ahsoka dropped in, blade flashing into existence a mere instant before slamming into one of the crimson ones with the force to drive the dark jedi into the ground as the momentum crushed the injured figure while the togruta flipped backwards and beside him, "Was wondering if you'd gotten lost along the way."
"Well," she answered, "So much to do, so little time."
"Is that your fifth or sixth outfit before deigning to grace us with your presence?"