The first drop pods struck the outer perimeter of Rwookrrorro like meteors, creating craters into the jungle floor and sending wroshyr tree saplings flying through the jungle. The impacts came in staggered waves, dozens at first, then hundreds, until the ground itself continuously got hit every minute by orbital drop pods.
Colonel Denn's voice came through the comm, still stuttery as the jamming worsened. "My Prince, pods are hatching."
Malrik was already moving, Seraphine at his side, both of them descending through the tee city's inner stairwell toward the ground-level defensive line. Around them, Wookiees shouted war cries, their bowcasters and vibroaxes gripped tight as they took position along the roots of the trees.
As Malrik made it to the front lines, the first line of Killik soldiers broke through the tree line.
"Hold!" Malrik shouted, amplifying his voice with the Force, rallying the wavering Wookiee line. "Let them come to us! Do no break formation!"
The Killiks charged forward without hesitation, throwing themselves against the shield wall the Empyrean Guards had hastily erected between the roots. Bowcaster bolts and blaster fire tore through the front ranks, but more Killiks replaced them instantly, climbing over the bodies of their own dead.
Seraphine moved beside Malrik, her blade cutting down two of the Killiks that broke through a gap in the line. "They're relentless," she said between strikes. "And there are so many."
"They don't fear death," Malrik said, cutting down a Killik that lunged at him. "That's what makes them dangerous. Not skill. Not strategy. Just endless bodies willing to throw themselves at us until we tire."
Grashak roared from further down the line, his vibroaxe brutally cleaving through a Killlik's body.
Around him, younger Wookiees fought with a ferocity born of protecting their home, their families, and their trees.
The Empyrean Guards held the center, their enhanced strength and Gen'Dai physiology allowing them to shrug off strikes that would have injured ordinary soldiers.
A Balance Keeper named Toren, one of the dozen or so stationed on the planet, moved through the Killik ranks like a blur, his lightsaber trailing afterimages as he cut down soldier after soldier without breaking stride. But even his skill couldn't stem the tide entirely. For every Killik he killed, three more charged forward to fill the gap.
"Colonel Denn," Malrik called through the comm, "status on the shield tower?"
"Still no response, my Prince. I've sent a squad to investigate, but with the jamming this thick, I can't guarantee they'll reach it or that we'll hear back if they do."
Malrik gritted his teeth. Without the shield tower, they had no way of stopping additional drop pods from reinforcing the assault, and no way of calling for orbital support even if any existed to answer.
He turned to his right and looked at one of the Balance Keepers. "Take a detachment. Fight your way to the tower. If it's been sabotaged, I need to know. If it's simply offline, get it back up."
The Balance Keeper took about 200 Empyrean Guards with him and a contingent of Wookiee warriors, cutting a path through the jungle toward the shield tower's last known position. Malrik turned his attention back to the main line, where the Killik assault showed no signs of relenting.
He reached out through the Force again, searching past the interference for that massive presence he'd sensed earlier. It was closer now, waiting in orbit as drop pods continued to fall.
Something or someone was directing this assault with purpose, and Malrik had a small feeling that Aruun was the one behind it.
The battle went on for another twenty minutes before Colonel Denn's voice came over the Comm, a little clearer this time. "My Prince, shield tower status confirmed. Not sabotaged. Overloaded, deliberately, from an external signal source. The Balance Keeper team is working to restore local control now."
"How long?"
"Ten minutes, they estimate. Maybe less if the Wookiee engineers who built the redundancy systems can bypass the corrupted relay."
Ten minutes was an eternity in a battle like this, but it was better than nothing. Malrik pushed forward through the line, Seraphine matching his pace, both of them carving deeper into the Killik ranks in an attempt to relieve pressure on the flanks where the Wookiee warriors were beginning to tire.
Above them, through gaps in the smoke and falling debris, Malrik caught glimpses of the orbital battle unfolding, Imperial fighters that had managed to scramble despite the jamming, engaging Killik interceptors in a chaotic dog fight high above the jungle canopy. Streaks of fire appeared where ships on both sides had been destroyed, falling as drop pods already covered the ground with their debris.
"Rwookrrorro's western edge is failing!" Grashak's roar cut through the chaos, and Malrik turned to see a section of the line buckling as fresh Killik reinforcements poured through a gap where three Wookiee warriors had fallen.
"Seraphine, hold the center with Toren," Malrik ordered, already moving. "I'll cover the west."
"Don't be a hero," she called after him, but he was already gone.
He reached the failing line just as a wave of Killiks broke through entirely, spilling into the lower platforms of the city itself. Younglings who hadn't yet been evacuated screamed from somewhere above.
He didn't draw his lightsaber. He simply raised both his hands and let a single Force wave, hurling the Killiks backwards into the trees. The impact snapped the Killiks bodies, killing them instantly as they hit the wroshyr bark.
Around him, his accompanying Empyrean Guards had formed a circle around him and began their slaughter of the Killiks that approached.
"Reform the line!" he shouted, and the surviving Wookiee warriors scrambled to close the breach, dragging their wounded back behind the shield of Empyrean Guards who moved to plug the hole with their own bodies.
Malrik pressed forward into the newly cleared space, cutting down the stragglers who'd survived his initial attack.
It was there, in the momentary lull, that he felt it again, the massive presence in orbit, and this time it felt like it was looking directly at him.
"Little prince" Malrik suddenly heard a voice in his head. "Your father hunts my creations on the other side of the galaxy. I thought it only fair he learns what it costs to make an enemy me. For too long has he gone without a challenge. Now I am here to provide that challenge."
Malrik staggered slightly as the presence pressing against his mind caused his vision to become blurry for a second before he was able to resist it.
"Aruun," he said aloud, recognizing the presence as his father had explained to him. But this presence was a little bit stronger than what he was initially told, which meant that Aruun had gotten stronger.
"You know my name. Good, then you will understand exactly what it means when I tell you this: I will kill you today, little prince. This death I give you will be the mercy I grant to those of Daimon's family."
Malrik tightened his grip on his blade. "Then come down here and say that to my face instead of hiding in orbit like a coward."
Aruun laughed hearing Malrik's words. "Patience, child. I have all the time in the galaxy, and you have only the minutes it takes for my army to tear apart everything you love." Aruun's presence disappeared, leaving Malrik with a pounding headache.
He turned back toward the main line, where Seraphine and Toren were still holding the center, though the Killik numbers pressing against them showed no sign of diminishing.
The wroshyr trees themselves were beginning to smolder in places where drop pod impacts had ignited the bark, adding smoke to the already chaotic battlefield.
"Colonel Denn," Malrik called through the comm, "status on that shield tower?"
"Six minutes, my Prince. The engineers say the corrupted relay is proving to be stubborn."
Six minutes felt like an eternity when he could feel the weight of Aruun's attention still lingering at the edges of his mind. That patience worried him more than an outright assault would have. Aruun was an unexpected piece on the chess board that could cause problems at any time.
Malrik pushed the thought aside and returned to the fighting. He used a combination of Force attacks with his lightsaber to relieve some pressure off of the Wookiees. The Empyrean Guards were doing well, cutting down a dozen of Killiks per person every few seconds. Their armor, which is made from the strongest metal in the Imperium and infused with the Force, made it extremely hard for any attack to get through.
Unless one was a strong Force user, they couldn't hope to pierce the armor of the Empyrean Guards.
Using this advantage alongside their bio-enhanced bodies, they moved like tanks on the battlefield. However, the armor wasn't completely invulnerable, and if overwhelmed by a large group of Killiks, they could be killed.
Luckily, they worked as a team and managed to not allow that to happen.
A Wookiee warrior beside Malrik went down under three Killiks, and Malrik cut through them before the warrior could be finished, using the Force to haul the wounded Wookiee back behind the line with one hand while continuing to fight with the other.
"They're not slowing down," Seraphine called from across the clearing, her voice strained now with the effort of sustained combat. "If anything, the waves are getting larger."
"He's testing how long we can hold," Malrik replied, destroying another dozen Killiks with the Force. "He wants to see what it takes to break us before he decided whether to commit anything more personal to this fight."
Above them, the orbital battle had shifted, more Imperial fighters falling from the sky trailing smoke, though for everyone lost, a Killik interceptor followed it down, spiraling into the ground.
The dogfight above had become as much a war of attrition as the ground battle, neither side able to claim clear superiority.
"Colonel Denn," Malrik called again, cutting down another wave of Killiks, "tell me that tower is coming back online."
"Three minutes, my Prince. They're bypassing the sequence now."
Three minutes. Malrik gritted his teeth and pressed forward, Force lightning crackling from his fingertips as he pointed it at a cluster of Killiks attempting to flank Toren's position.
Grashak's voice roared over the chaos. "West flank holding! But my warriors are tiring, Prince! We cannot sustain this pace forever!"
"No one has to sustain it forever," Malrik shouted back. "Just until that shield comes back online!"
Grashak gritted his teeth and continued fighting.
Three minutes later and Colonel Denn came back over the comm. "My Prince, the shield is coming back online now."
"Copy that, good work." replied Malrik as he sensed the shield activating. It took almost a minute before it completely covered the planet, blocking any more drop pods and fighters from heading towards the surface.
But just as it had gone up, the shield was shattered in the next second. Malrik didn't have enough time to react to the shield shattering, as he felt Aruun's massive presence heading towards the surface.
"Everybody brace yourselves!" he shouted. The Empyrean Guards and Wookiee warriors around him heard him and had prepared themselves for whatever was about to happen.
In the next second, Aruun came crashing down right in front of Malrik. However, it didn't stop there as Aruun rushed toward Malrik.
A group of Empyrean Guards seeing this had jumped right in front of Malrik to stop Aruun.
"Hahaha" Aruun laughed as he used the Dagger of Mortis of cut them into pieces. Their armor didn't stop the blade at all, and now they were dead.
Malrik raised his blade and blocked Aruun who continue his advance towards him. As their two blades were locked against each other, Aruun stared Malrik directly in the eyes and started maniacally laughing.
"I am here young Prince. Now, let's have some fun before you die." Aruun pushed Malrik back, creating some distance between the two. The Empyrean Guards started to reform, leaving some to hold the frontline while the others go and support the Prince.
Seraphine also started to run towards where he was as she sensed the tremendous, hostile Force presence near him.