Careful with that thing; it's been though hell

XII - Escape

Cal wants to regret his decision to jump: he's injured and there's a full-blown battle where he's landing, among other sensible, sensible reasons not to—but he hardly has time to think before the ground is right below him. The view takes shape as he passes through the cloud of smoke. Here, between the shuttle and the ground, the wind is fierce and blaster fire is everywhere. In the distance, he sees Trilla's lightsaber cutting into swarms of battle droids.

He attempts a flip as the ground draws nearer, putting some distance between him and the hard ground before he crashes straight down. Whatever mania had overcome him is gone now—he'd like to live, to see his friends again, thank you very much.

Cal has a closeup of the Separatist forces from above just before he lands on his feet. Pain spikes up his legs, coming to a stop at his chest, then spreading from there. Cal bites back a hiss of pain, trying to take in his surroundings. It's difficult with the smoke and debris flying everywhere, but it looks like he's on a massive runway, one of the many in the city. He makes out the Inquisitors along with stormtroopers on the other side of this mess, slicing through battle droids and slowly working their way to the centre, where there's an AAT-like vehicle firing at the retreating shuttle.

Where did they get that? Cal has to stop in awe despite himself. The Clone Wars ended five years ago. It's a wonder that there are still Separatist forces lingering on Coruscant at all—but lately, he's discovered that anything is possible. And it's not like he's complaining, anyway: without their interference, who knows how he would've managed to escape?

"Who are you? Identify yourself."

He whips around to see a group of B1 battle droids—the audience to his drop from the shuttle. They're all pointing their blasters at him.

"Easy now..." His mind races for a plan. What are his chances of getting out of here without being shot?

Then one battle droid speaks up. "Is that a Jedi?"

"No, they're all gone," Another says.

"Oh. That's good."

Right. He's forgotten how poorly programmed these droids are: he'd heard countless stories from the clones back in his Padawan days. Cal draws in a breath, calling the Force to his side. Then he pushes. The five battle droids go flying off the edge of the runway, screeching for help. Seeing his opening, he breaks into a run.

"It is a Jedi! Blast him!" The surrounding droids turn to him as he dashes past.

"Roger, roger!" More shots fly over his head, one dangerously searing as it goes by. The droids gather close, trying to seal off his escape. He casts his gaze around, looking for a way out as he flips over two of them. Connected to the runway is a skyscraper. He'll go there, find a way down to the lower floors— 

A shot gets him in the shoulder. Cal lets out a shout of pain and glances back, throwing out an arm and sending another few droids flying. Then he gets to the inner entrance and the shots die down. He runs in, clutching his side and panting.

He immediately knows he's made a mistake when he hears a robotic voice speak up.

"Halt, intruder!"

He looks up. He's in a big hangar, much like the one back in the Fortress, but instead of ships the entire facility is filled with more battle droids and several Imperial troops fighting them back. Several droids, taller and bulkier than the rest, stand in front of the group. Super battle droids. Cal swears under his breath.

He doesn't give them the chance to turn him into target practice: he dashes back out into the daylight, where even more droids await. Still, he'd rather take his chances with them than with the droids inside.