The time at the landing site was mid-morning, and the clone trooper set the shuttle down in a grassy clearing near the top of a large hill. All around were small, but steep mountains with deep valleys in between. The steepness was softened a bit by the jungle that covered almost everything the eye could see, making everything seem a bit more even.
Zan Jonas went back to the cargo bay and began putting together the equipment he would need to capture and transport the specimens, as well as checking over the cryostasis pods. If those weren't in working order, there wasn't much use trekking out into the jungle.
He hoped it wouldn't take more than a couple days to meet the quota they had given him. On Republic affiliated worlds, he tried to stay in hostels and inns as often as possible, but a trip like this would force the Jedi to camp out, especially if he wasn't able to make it back to the ship for the night.
He glanced over as the clone trooper entered the cargo bay and began going over his equipment. Mostly weapons, Jonas noted. "I doubt you'll need all that hardware, Corporal," he said, voicing his thoughts.
"Never hurts to be prepared for the unexpected, sir," the clone said, continuing his preparations. He finished his packing and began donning his green and brown mottled armor.
When they had finished, they pushed the control button which dropped the whole cargo bay to the ground under the fuselage of the shuttle and stepped out. Already the heat and humidity was oppressive and Jonas had to resort to Force techniques to compensate. He wondered briefly how the corporal could stand wearing that helmet and armor without passing out.
"I won't tell if you want to leave that armor here at the ship," he said, trying to give the clone a way to be a bit more comfortable in this climate.
He laughed underneath his helmet. "Good one, sir."
Apparently he thought it had been a joke.
Jonas shrugged and closed his eyes. He stretched out with the Force, ranging farther and farther, concentrating on the insects he was looking for. Generally, the smaller and less intelligent the creature, the harder it was to sense with the Force. Right now, all he was getting was a vague sense that he out to travel in a Northerly direction.
"That way, Corporal," he said, pointing the way he wanted to go, and they both strode out.
The going wasn't easy, and often the Scout Clone Trooper had to pull out his machete, or Jonas had to use his lightsaber to clear the underbrush to make a path. It was the most use the Jedi weapon had seen in a long time.
By mid-afternoon, the pair stopped at the top of a tall steep hill to take a breather and for Jonas to get his bearings. He had yet to come across anything but faint sensations and his hopes of finding the insects quickly were growing dimmer by the minute.
The Jedi stood there on the edge with his eyes closed, sensing that he should still move forward. He opened his eyes and looked down, calculating the possibility of navigating straight down. It was even steeper than he had imagined at first, but there were enough saplings and underbrush that it might be possible. One misstep and that would be it, though.
He was also taking into consideration the fact they'd eventually have to come back up, and wondering if an easier way down might be close by when it dawned on him that the trooper standing just a couple meters to his side was talking.
Jonas looked over and realized the soldier was getting some sort of a communique through the comm in his helmet.
"I copy you. Order 66. Roger that. CC1558, out," was all Jonas was able to catch.
"Something up, Corporal?" Jonas asked.
Time slowed to a crawl for the Jedi. Several things registered at almost the same instant, and his brain processed it nearly as fast. First, he sensed in the Force a sudden aggressive feeling from his escort. Second, he felt the Force trying to warn him of imminent danger, and third, he saw the corporal grasp his carbine and begin to swing it up in Jonas' direction.
Jonas' first thought was that the trooper was going to shoot him, but just as quickly he dismissed that as ridiculous. The clones were allies of the Republic and the Jedi worked side by side with them, commanding them and fighting with them. That assessment of the situation just wasn't possible.
Jonas' second thought seemed to be the correct one. Some dangerous beast had come up behind Jonas when he had been concentrating on finding the insect, and the trooper was attempting to do his duty and protect the Jedi.
Time seemed to speed back up as the Jedi acted on instinct, spinning to face the danger and drawing his lightsaber at the same time.
As he spun, a rock rolled under his foot, throwing the Jedi off balance and to the ground. The only problem was that at the point in time when he expected his body to hit the dirt, he kept falling instead.
Two things he noticed then. One, he had fallen down the hill, and two, the clone trooper had swung the barrel of the carbine once again in his direction and was sending a salvo of blaster fire his way.
As he hit and bounced for the first of many times, the only thought running through Jonas' mind was that the trooper really was trying to kill him.
---------------
How much time had passed, Jonas didn't know. He opened his eyes and tried to look around and his head screamed. He forced himself to sit up and assess his situation. He was pretty sure his arm was broken, as was a leg and several ribs, and he guessed he probably had a concussion, from the his head felt and the waves of blackness that kept threatening to wash over him.
He had to remind himself that if it weren't for the clumsy tumble down the hill, he'd be dead right now, although he wasn't sure that death wasn't preferable to his current situation.
Jonas looked down in his hand and was surprised to see himself clutching a familiar metal cylinder, and then he vaguely remembered doing his best as he fell to try and cushion himself using the Force and concentrating on holding on to that lightsaber.
At the same time he flicked it on to see if it would still work, he noticed a crack running down the side of the hilt. He tried to flick it back off, but it was too late. A high pitch whine began to build, getting louder and louder. The core of the powercell had been damaged and it was going to blow.
Jonas tossed the tube as far as he could and gathered the Force around him to once again protect himself from the concussive impact.
The explosion was huge, and the Jedi suspected that if not for the Force, he'd have been killed despite the toss.
Suddenly it dawned on him, that through the Force, he had felt... something... die. A big something.
He began to crawl as best he could toward the site of the explosion. He started to crawl over a log, then stopped.
It wasn't a log. Rather, it was the charred remains of a human.
No, not a human.
A clone.
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