3rd Person

All clones are the same.

Such a statement was true in physical sense. Upon further examination, such a statement was blatantly false.

All clones came from the same template, the notorious bounty hunter Jango Fett. Draped in traditional mandalorian beskar armor, he was said to be so adept at his craft he'd even killed Jedi. Such a hardened hunter made the perfect base for an army. Birthed on their home planet of Kamino, the clones were bred for war. Surely it must have been peculiar to look through the cloning facility cafeteria and see thousands of the same identical faces.

Despite this, the clones were not the same. Anyone who'd ever held a conversation with one would tell you otherwise. 

They all received the same combat training, the same armor, the same flesh and blood. However, as they aged together deep within the island city, each individual clone developed their own uniqueness. Whether it was a gift for diplomacy, a good sense of humor, or innate leadership skills, the clone branched out. Their eventually chosen names were proof of that; a code of digits and letters was no name for a living being. The name of a clone immediately told you a little about them. 

"Rex."

"Fives."

"Fox."

"Cody."

"Rys."

"Keeli." 

"Burst."

All clones are not the same.

Burst POV

"Why do you continue to attack us?" Chirrut pleaded.

"Why do you continue to prevent us from entering the temple? What do you have to hide from us?" Hela fired back.

"The crystals must be protected and safeguarded. It is our job as guardians to defend them from anyone looking to use their power maliciously." Chirrut retorted plainly.

"And a fat lot of good you've done safeguarding this place." Hela spat, pointing to the dozens of empty cavities in the wall where crystals once grew. "You guardians won't be able to keep up this facade forever. We will catch you in the act eventually."

"Your church has been quite open about your desire to harvest kyber in the past. Wouldn't that make you a more likely culprit?" Chirrut countered, becoming a bit flustered.

"Only to aid the Jedi Order. Have you forgotten who this sacred land belongs to?!" Hela questioned viscously.

"This land belongs to no one but the force!" Chirrut roared.

"Will you two shut up? You're acting like children." I snapped, unable to tolerate the bickering of our supposed guides. Part of me wanted to simply quickdraw my twin DH-17 blaster pistols and stun the both of them. 

"Keep in mind this guy is literally eleven years old. He's right though." Slipstream added, to which I rolled my eyes as per usual.

"The Jedi serve the will of the force!" Hela continued, ignoring Slipstream and I.

My fingers slowly crept toward my holster, itching to end this torture. Then Slipstream intervened. 

"How do you know either of you are serving the force? Does it speak to you? I'm a little confused." Slipstream inquired. He still retained a bit of his joking tone, but there was a dash of genuineness to his curiosity. 

"The force expresses itself through all living things. If you seek to understand the natural order of the galaxy, the will of the force becomes clear." Hela divulged, her attention still directed toward Chirrut. Slipstream rubbed his chin, deep in thought.

"Interesting." he spouted.

"You don't believe that! You want to weaponize the hearts and souls within these caverns!" Chirrut accused Hela in an impassioned outburst. She proceeded to defend her convictions. 

"Kyber crystals have been used by the Jedi for countless generations. We would only be accepting that which we are gifted. This power  that has been cultivated over eons was not created to linger here unused. If you had your way, the crystals would become your prisoners."

"Are the Jedi really in need of more lightsabers? It's not as if there's a shortage." Slipstream scrutinized.

"Kyber can be used for much more than simple laser swords." Hela snorted.

"See? They must be preserved, protected from people like her." Chirrut stated firmly, gripping his wooden staff. 

"And when the separatists are at your doorstep? What will you do then?!" Hela demanded, drawing her knife. 

"Aaand, that's escalation if I've ever seen it." I remarked.

 With two simple pulls of a trigger (accompanied by a zapping noise), the squabbling zealots were unconscious on the cavern floor. 

"Hey! I was just about to make some progress." Slipstream lamented. 

"I mean, can't have them killing each other." I shrugged. My longtime friend nodded, indicating he understood. 

Time passed. We'd long since executed the mission and surveyed our branch of the tunnels. As for General Gallia and Commander (l/n), there was no sign of them. 

"What's taking them so long? I've got a bad feeling about this." I muttered.

"Think we should go check?" Slipstream asked.

"I was just thinking the same thing." I confirmed, drawing my blaster pistols. Starting toward the opposing branch of tunnels, Slipstream reminded me of our baggage.

"We can't just leave them here like this." he asserted.

"Hey, wake up." I ordered Hela, gripping her shoulders and shaking her awake. Slipstream did the same for Chirrut. They were groggy and disheveled, but we didn't have the time for them to properly acclimated. We made haste, combing through each and every irregularity in the vertical stone surfaces.

No sign of them. If only there had been a layer of sediment... then we might have found some footprints. Alas, we were out of our element. Correction, I was. The clone standing beside me was the best tracker I knew. 

(y/n) POV

https://youtu.be/rYULvmnJd2E

"Technique is nothing without strength to back it up." I declared, holding my ground against the dathomirian nightsister. 

My feet were planted firm, my stance rigid and unshakeable. Even with her maximum effort, the assassin was unable to push me back. Despite my lack of force affinity, my strength was true.

 Ventress raised her dual sabers for another downward cleave. As the twin crimson blades rammed against my blade of emerald once more, I maintained my composure. A few months ago I might have been overwhelmed, but now I had balance.

Still, she was a foe I couldn't hope to defeat. It was a hard truth to swallow, but a truth nonetheless. 

'I just need to hold her off. Even just a minute would do.'  I assessed, taking a quick glance at my master behind me. That was a mistake. 

"You're a stubborn one!" Ventress hissed, the tip of her saber nearly melting through my left eye. As I narrowly ducked sideways, I felt a scorching heat from several of my hairs being vaporized. She then attempted to dice through my head with her follow-up, an attack I deflected by the skin of my teeth. 

"Such strength! What are they feeding the fledgling Jedi these days?" Ventress cackled as our trinity of lightsabers struggled against each other. Her devilish grin didn't last long, as it was soon replaced by a scowl at her inability to push me back. 

Her next course of action didn't bode well for me. Retracting her blades, Ventress outstretched her hand in a force push. The intangible impact struck me like a reek charging at full speed. It was all I could do to not tumble backward into my master. Instead, I slid a few meters backward. 

'My force resistance isn't strong enough!' I despaired. Even with my knowledge, coupled with Master Gallia's training in resisting other force powers, it wasn't enough. I was still too weak.

"Oh?" Ventress uttered, surprised by the effectiveness of her rather modest attack. Seeing this, she logically took it to the next level. The sith assassin now formed her fist into a gripping motion.

Bit by bit, I an invisible force began applying pressure to my windpipe. I grabbed my neck out of pure reflex as I started to choke. It was as if a frigid, clammy hand was compressing my throat. Slowly my feet left the ground until I was suspended in the air, choking to death.

It was life and death now, no time to panic. 

'Concentrate.'

I tried to decipher the energy binding me, probing for a way to disable it. If I could surround myself with an aura strong enough, I could negate the force choking me. That was force resistance. 

Ever so slightly, I felt the compression ease up a bit. 

'Yes! Just a bit more.'

I continued to focus, the process draining a tremendous amount of willpower....

No luck. Now my vision was going dark...

"Enough!!!" my master howled, her scream so warped it might have been confused for a krayt dragon's cry. 

In an impressive feat of telekinetic power, she freed an assortment of stalactites from the hold of the cave ceiling. The massive hunks of stone plummeted to the cavern floor, barely missing Ventress. More importantly, now a wall of rubble separated us from the nightsister. 

The cold grip on my throat released, enabling me to inhale once more. 

"Thank... you... master...!" I panted, short of breath.

"You saved me first, I should be thanking you." she responded gratefully, yet troubled. 

"Master! Your wrist..." I trailed off, fully viewing the grotesque swelling in her right arm.

"Ignore it for now padawan, we don't have the time. I'd hoped to apprehend her here and now, but with that no longer possible..." Distantly, a metallic clacking sound became audible. It steadily grew in volume, but I could tell it was still somewhere faraway in the network of tunnels. "I thought so. Surely now she's sent her battle droids."

Burst POV

https://youtu.be/icSrzREkNJM

"General Gallia... General Gallia! Come in!" I yelled into my commlink. Garbled static was all I heard in return. "Dammit, worth a try." 

"Interesting..." Slipstream muttered under his breath, brushing a thermal scanner across the ground. 

"Any luck?" I asked hopefully. 

"They were definitely here. Where they went is a mystery." Slipstream explained. He proceeded to run his hands along the smooth sides of stone, taking time to inspect both the carved and uncarved sections of the wall. Then he turned around to look at Chirrut and Hela "Tell me, are there any... hidden passageways perhaps?"

"Not to my knowledge. I doubt there would be, but perhaps the resident expert knows better." Hela advised sarcastically.

"None at all. The guardians have mapped every square meter of this temple." Chirrut claimed confidently, ignoring his naysayer. 

"I see." Slipstream acknowledged, his brow furrowed. Turning back to the cavern sides, he began lightly tapping the rock with a compact metal hammer. With each delicate knock, he pressed his ear against the surface to hear the vibrations. As minutes accumulated, the two buffoons became impatient. 

"This is useless, we should return to the surface and form a search party." Hela professed.

"For once, I have to agree." Chirrut admitted, echoing her sentiment.

"Sshhh." I reprimanded the duo. 

"What?!" they exclaimed in unison, exasperated. 

"You're watching a master at work." I said, gesturing to the trooper fully engrossed in his scan. Coincidentally, at that very moment, he made a breakthrough.

"Ah! Here!" he exclaimed, pointing to a specific area of cavern wall. 

I couldn't hide my beaming smile. Maybe it was the fact that my buddy had completely shut down the doubts of our tagalongs. Maybe it was just me being proud of my friend. Either way, regardless of his stupid quips, we didn't call him 'Slipstream' for nothing.

"Clack."

"Clack."

"Clack."

It was faint. Ever so faint, but I was sure. I heard a sound I would never mistake for anything else.

"What? It looks no different than anything else here." Hela uttered, fed up. 

"Believe me, there's a secret tunnel right here." Slipstream doubled down. 

"And how did you come to this conclusion?" she mocked skeptically.

"I used the force." he stated, stone-faced.

"Shut up, all of you. We've got clankers incoming!" I hollered, alarms bells going off in my head. Then the smooth surface Slipstream had been pointing to slid open, revealing a secret section of catacombs. Out of the mouth of the tunnel came the Jedi we'd been looking for. Commander (l/n)'s swiftness was so potent that he collided with me, resulting in both of us falling over. 

For a brief moment the separate parties stared at one another, stunned.

"Escape now, explanations later." Leave it to the General to bring us to our senses.

(y/n) POV

Running. Now this I could do. 

Though, I had to slow my pace so as to not leave everyone behind. 

It was a mad dash back to the surface. If Ventress did in fact have a CIS army hidden throughout the catacombs, we were grossly outmatched. 

Escape to the surface, call for backup. It was simple, but first we had to survive. 

It didn't take long before I saw my first 'clanker.'

"Clankers to the left!" Burst warned. Glancing down a divergent tunnel, I caught a glimpse of the infamous B1 battle droid. 

They were spindly and fragile looking. Really? Those were the main infantry forces the separatists had to offer? Pathetic,

"Padawan! Slow down!" My master called to me forcefully. What was there to worry about? Turning back to face my front, I caught a glimpse of a dull gray alloy before colliding with something dense and heavy. Rubbing my head, I looked up to view the source of my collision.

A B2 battle droid. Far more bulky than its predecessor. The lifeless android locked onto me, preparing to fire its wrist blasters.

However large and intimidating the 'super' battle droid was, I knew a certain hulking droid that would make even this emotionless killing machine feel fear. 

"Woosh!"

Leaping high into the air removed me from its line of fire.

"Psshew!" 

I ignited my green lightsaber in midair.

Tsshhew!" 

I bisected the B2 battle droid.