It seemed like Obi-Wan and Anakin had just returned from their mission on Zygerria when they were summoned to the Jedi Temple briefing room to be assigned yet another task. The war with the Separatists was dragging on and Jedi in active duty were finding themselves on distant systems more than they were home at the Temple these days. The two Jedi walked side-by-side down a grand corridor musing idly about what this mission may entail. As they passed a lecture hall, Anakin's Padawan exited her physics class and fell in beside her Master. As usual, she could hardly keep the bounce out of her step.
"How was class, Snips?" asked Anakin with a smirk. He remembered them as dull and uninteresting and far too easy.
She wrinkled her nose. "It was boring, Master. We only just learned what you taught me last week. Are we going another mission?" she added excitedly.
"Obi-Wan and I are," he answered, grinning at Obi-Wan.
Obi-Wan grinned back. "Indeed we are, Ahsoka. You shall be invited as well, depending on your current academic marks."
Quick as lightning, she whipped out her data pad and brandished her list of grades in front of her Master hopefully. It was straight A's down the page.
Anakin eyed the impressive list of grade marks critically.
"Hmm, I don't know Snips. You have an A- in Galactic Politics," he said casting a sideways glance to the Master who usually taught the course.
Obi-Wan smiled ruefully. "Yes, she has an A- in my class because she spends more time daydreaming about the battle maneuvers that you two cook up during study hours than she does listening to my lecture."
"Ahsoka, is this true?" Anakin queried his Padawan with a hint of reproach.
Embarrassed, Ahsoka cast her eyes down toward her feet as she glumly admitted "Yes, Master. It's true."
Anakin's false reproach swelled to pride. He smiled and nudged her playfully. "That's my Padawan."
Realizing that Master Skywalker and Master Kenobi were toying with her, Ahsoka beamed with joy. She was going on the mission after all! With a hoot of delight, she did a quick front somersault as they walked, landing lightly on her feet.
"Easy Snips! Not in the corridors!" said Anakin as the three continued along to the brief.
Obi-Wan quietly regarded the Master-Padawan team beside him. They reminded him so much of a younger version of himself and Anakin that it was uncanny. And yet he and Anakin were so close in age that it was almost as though Ahsoka was mentored by and devoted to the approval of both of the Jedi Masters. It was usually Ahsoka, her Master, and her Master's Master- the three of them made an impressive team and were often summoned to missions as such.
However, his silent tranquility was gradually being interrupted by a tension and foreboding in the Force that was emanating from beyond the closed briefing room doors. It tugged at his conscious thoughts, nagging them for attention.
"I feel it too," said Anakin sensing Obi-Wan's disquiet.
"Feel what?" chimed Ahsoka. "Is it bad? Has something happened?"
"Never fear, Snips. You can't ever go wrong with this old man and me by your side. Especially me," Anakin said with a conceited laugh.
Ignoring Anakin's haughtiness, Obi-Wan spoke to the apprentice. "Stay sharp and stay focused. Let us see what delightful adventure the Republic has in store for us today."
The doors to the briefing room slid open and Obi-Wan, Anakin and Ahsoka stepped into the circular room that was awash in the bluish-white light of a hologram message. Masters Yoda and Mace Windu were standing at the large circular table solemnly waiting for the Jedi who were assigned to this emergent mission. Obi-Wan bowed in respect as he stood next to Mace. They were soon joined by the tall graceful form of Jedi Master Aayla Secura. Her face was a mask of composure but her twin head tails were twitching in agitation. She bowed as the other Jedi did the same to her.
"What has happened, Master?" Aayla asked Yoda in her thick Rylothi accent as she bowed to him. "And what can we do to help?"
Yoda looked up at Mace as a silent command for him to begin briefing his peers.
Mace did so. "It's General Grievous on the Koriba system. He's been collecting leverage for land to build more droid factories."
Mace solemnly played the message that had been paused in its first second of transmission.
The message that played before the six Jedi was a graphic one. In it, General Grievous and a platoon of destroyer droids violently stormed the royal palace of Koriba. The King and Queen, with help from a throng of surrounding servants, were settling their four young children to bed when suddenly the roof and wall of the nursery exploded. The Queen shrieked, shielding her children as the King drew his sword and advanced on Grievous while shouting for aid from his Royal Guards. But the guards were too late. The ruthless company of droids wasted no time in stunning the King and his wife, killing the servants and snatching up the four crying young children from their small beds. The fourth and youngest child, Grievous lifted by the leg and held up to the security camera's lens.
Ahsoka gasped in fright for the tiny prince and edged a few inches toward her master. Without taking his eyes off the message, Obi-Wan placed a steady calming hand on her bare shoulder.
Suddenly Grievous began to address the viewers of the hologram, his raspy, garbled voice sputtering in wrath.
"I don't appreciate having the fruits of my victory stolen out from under me. Nor do I appreciate the hours of overhaul I required after facing you Jedi scum in combat. This time you won't be so lucky."
He let out a hacking cough and cruelly raised the child higher and closer to the viewers, shaking him roughly.
"I now have in my possession the filthy offspring of the Royal family that governs this system. Either the system surrenders its lands and people to me, or these Royal brats will suffer." He laughed menacingly, raised the crying young child high with one of his metal claws and released him to the forces of gravity. The holo cut out just as the child was let go, his look of innocent terror frozen in the moment for all to see.
"No!" Ahsoka breathed, near to tears. She casted her eyes sadly away as Obi-Wan and Anakin glanced determinedly at each other.
"A bold stroke, even for Grievous," Obi-Wan commented sadly. "But the illustrious General and I are old friends. I'm sure we can persuade him to relinquish the Royal hostages."
"I agree," growled Anakin by his side, fists clenched. "When do we leave?"
"Patience," began Yoda softly. "More complicated this mission will be than it seems. Shrouded in darkness, Koriba is and clarity regarding the system's Separatist involvement, the Force has not yet provided me."
Mace spoke up ominously. "Yoda is right. There may be something even more devious at work on Koriba though we do not know the extent of it."
Obi-Wan folded his arms and stroked his beard pensively. "Koriban Royal policy gives cessions to political enemies that have any member of the Royal family in hostile custody. Grievous knows that as long as he holds the royal children alive, Koriba will bend to his will."
"Exactly," agreed Mace, his hands clasped beneath the small of his back. "We need to regain control of the hostages if we are going to get any aid from the People's Army of Koriba in expelling Grievous and the Separatist presence from the system."
Anakin crossed his arms and furrowed his brow. "So what you're saying is that as long as Grievous has the hostages, Koribans will allow him to build droid factories on their system?"
"Not only that, but the Koribans will be forced to work as slaves on their own home planet and forced to aid the Separatist cause in any way that they can be useful. They are an ancient and noble race, fervently dedicated to the preservation of the Royal blood. They will do anything for their King and his kin" added Obi-Wan.
"So what are we waiting for!? Let's go get the hostages back from that droid filth!" exclaimed Anakin sneering at the hologram and motioning toward the door.
"What we are waiting for, Master Skywalker, is detailed instructions from our elders," replied Aayla sternly to Anakin's intended rhetorical question.
He glared at her as a natural response, but softened his features and turned obediently back to Yoda. He like Aayla well enough to heed her words and she was right: he would have to obey orders, no matter how stupid and superfluous they may seem.
Mace extended an arm and held out a holodisc to Obi-Wan. "These are the details of your mission," he said. "You get yourselves in to Grievous' post, rescue the younglings, and get yourselves out. Bring the children back to the Temple. If you notice any other Separatist involvement on Koriba, take note."
"Lightly you must tread on this shrouded system," added Yoda. "Your priority, the younglings are but cautious and vigilant you must remain."
"Your shuttle awaits you in Hangar 3, Docking Bay 94. May the Force be with all of you," Mace said with a bow of his head.
Obi-Wan, and Aayla bowed back in respect and the team turned to exit the chamber. Abruptly remembering her courtesies, Ahsoka ran back into the room to give the elder Masters a hasty bow before running to the door to rejoin her own Master.
Yoda and Mace remained at the table looking somberly into the menacing holographic face of the droid general. Mace felt a sharp pang of regret.
Ever sensitive to the ebb and flow of the Living Force in the Jedi around him, Yoda noticed that the purple outline of Mace's robust Force presence was restive.
"Had more to say during the brief did you, Master Windu?" said Yoda peering up mystically at the tall Jedi Master.
Mace blinked slowly and exhaled, trying to release his concern into the Force.
"Master Yoda, I feel that somehow Obi-Wan is in greater jeopardy than the others. I can almost sense that he will be confronted with making a great sacrifice, but not clearly. I know you can feel it too. Why didn't we warn him?"
"Irrepressible is the bond between Obi-Wan and his former Padawan. We must trust the Force to let the events unfold, and trust in Obi-Wan's companions to rectify the extra danger there may be. Trust always, in the Force, Master Windu."
"Yes, Master," said Mace and he exited the chamber to meditate in his own quarters.
Yoda's gaze followed him out before he too settled down to meditate on the floor near a great window.