Chapter 3.

                                    

                                          
Obi-Wan's POV
                          
__________
                          
A volley of blaster shots exploded next to us, and in no time at all I was rolling to my feet, grabbing my wife's hand, and running – again. This was routine now. We would hide all day, run all night, and then do it again the next morning. We would run, and run, and run some more. We had to. If we wanted to live, we had to run.
                          
The Force screamed at me, yelling for me to get down, so I obeyed immediately, dropping flat to ground and dragging Satine with me. A Death Watch trooper, clad as always in black and red armour, flew directly overhead, his jetpack spurting grey smoke. The orange flame lit up the moonlight-bereft forest, pinpointing the trooper's exact location but also betraying ours.
                          
As quickly as we had dropped, I was pulling Satine back upright again, towing her along behind me as I weaved through the trees. Dead leaves and sticks crunched and snapped beneath our boots, and low-lying branches smacked us in the face, reprimanding us for being awake at this time of night. I tripped over a small rock, nearly bringing Satine down with me, but she yanked me to my feet again, taking the lead. Pulling me behind an irregularly-shaped boulder, she plastered herself against the rough service, breathing heavily. Even in the inky darkness, her blue eyes glinted with worry as she gazed at me.
                          
"Did we lose them?" Her voice was barely a whisper, but, in the stillness of the forest, it sounded like she was shouting at me. Evidently, the nocturnal critters were sulking from our noisy disturbance.
                          
White spotlights flooded the area, wholly blinding us, and leaves swirled in a mini whirlwind around us, kicked up by the exhaust of jetpacks. I was about to grab Satine and run again, but the Force yelled danger on all sides. We were trapped.
                          
"Surrender!" The leader of the squadron commanded, landing in front of us, his dual pistons aimed at us.
                          
My blue eyes darted around the area, scanning for the escape route I knew wasn't there. If I could just think of something ....
                          
"Surrender!" he repeated, his fingers playing dangerously with the triggers.
                          
I kept my gaze steady, holding Satine's hand tightly. We hadn't been running for a month only to be caught now. It couldn't end like this. It just couldn't.
                          
Loosening my grip on Satine's hand, I let my fingers slip out of hers, trying to ignore the worried look she was giving me. I just hoped she caught my silent pleadings for her to trust me. 
                          
The moment before he pulled the trigger, I tackled him to the ground, wrestling his guns off him and flinging them to the side. Gun shots sounded from behind me, and flashes of red and blue lit up the small clearing, reflecting off the dark brown trunks. Satine must have been helping take care of the rest of them.
                          
I immediately regretted allowing my concentration to get diverted when a blow of pain exploded across my cheek, the force strong enough to send me stumbling away from the leader. I was quickly dogpiled, having the breath squeezed out of me from the weight of six men. Wrenching my hand free, I fumbled for the gun hooked onto my brown belt. Pain shot up my wrist when a boot was planted on it, preventing me from grabbing it, and I gritted my teeth.
                          
Blaster shots sounded above me, and the weight became significantly lighter as one of the men was dragged off the pile and two others leapt off. From the satisfied huff I guessed Satine had successfully captured the attention of a couple of my attackers.
                          
Using that to my advantage, I pulled my gun to myself using the Force, then began rapidly shooting, totally unaware of where I was aiming. Judging from the number of enemies around me, I figured I could safely shoot just about anywhere.