Note: From the moment I first saw issue 24 of Marvel's old Star Wars comics, I knew I wanted to make a fic from it. It's amazing in it's own why, and it's plot still fits into Star Wars canon. It was the first comic book to take place in the old republic era and around the Clone Wars era at that. Mary Jo Duffy was a pioneer for the Prequel era and I'm sure Dave Filoni and others use even today.
So here it is, Silent Drifting: Reimagined. Based on Star Wars 24: Silent Drifting, published in 1979.
Disclaimer: Star Wars is the property of George Lucas, similar rights for Silent Drifting comic and Clone Wars series go to Mary Jo Duffy and Dave Filoni respectively. Everyone else, you know who you are and I dare you to find me!
A GALAXY AT WAR!
Like a cancer, the CLONE WARS creep closer and
closer to the heart of the Republic with the pasting days.
As the evil SEPARATIST ALLIANCE grows with each
new conquest, the Clone armies and their Jedi generals
put up a desperate battle for the fate of the Galaxy.
Traveling through hyperspace, recovering from a
different type of battling, Jedi Master OBI-WAN KENOBI
and the padawan learner AHSOKA TANO are returning
from a peaceful and long session of diplomatic talks
that were less than successful. The fighting seemed
far away, but in a warring Galaxy nothing is
what it seems...
A phantasm of blues, blacks, and whites whirled around the small Jedi shuttle as it knifed through hyperspace, the two occupants inside paying the site little mind. Ahsoka Tano was all to familiar with traveling at lightspeed. Even after spending much of her life planetside, in the confines of the Jedi Temple, the past month of becoming a padawan had exposed the young Togruta to many new things, especial hyperspace travel. At first she had marveled at it, gawking out the viewport, taking in every shifting color as her transport zoomed along. Now it was a bore. A calm between different planets and peoples, between tranquility and action! As Ahsoka took in a deep breathe to sigh, it turned into an unexpected yawn. The High Jedi Master could not help but frown at her.
"You better not fall asleep behind the controls, young one." Kenobi scoffed as the Jedi girl rubbed her eyes awake.
"I'm sorry, Master Kenobi..." The padawan replied around another short yawn, "I just didn't find the talks on Trandosha as...stimulating as my other Jedi duties."
"Oh?" Eyebrow cocked on the older Jedi, the young Togruta was on skating over thinning ice.
"N-Not that negotiation is a boring or anything! Those talks with the Trandoshan government are seven hours no one could possibly forget." She forced a grin in the hopes that the Negotiator buy her ploy, "I guess I'm just more use to Master Skywalker's speed with diplomacy."
"Ha! For what Anakin would call diplomacy, it's anything but, young one!"
"It's sure are different, Master..." The Jedi girl released sigh of relief as Kenobi looked longingly out of the forward viewport and into the past.
"I remember one time when Anakin and I were on a mission to Zeltros. A group of terrorists had capture several high ranking senators and would only begin negotiations with a Jedi. However, once we arrived on the planet, Anakin immediately... ..."
By that point, Ahsoka had drowned out the High Jedi and reverted to nodding her head at every pause in speech, focusing instead on the shuttle's controls. It was fairly easy to induce an "...when Anakin and I..." story from Master Kenobi and given the onset of a lecture, the young Togruta was happy because of it. A little guilt instead of a lot of preaching, fair trade. As the older Jedi prattled on about the Good Old Days, the padawan moved across control switches and nobs that commanded the tiny starship. A simple systems check, nothing too interesting...though still somewhat entertaining for the board Jedi girl. The engines levels were in the green, the shuttle's shields were reading optimal, the communcation array...what's this?
"Master Kenobi." Ahsoka suddenly said, interrupting the High Jedi's reminisce. He blinked and turned to the young Togruta, "The array is picking up a distress signal traveling through hyperspace."
"A distress signal?" Kenobi inquired as he stared at his own command displays, "Is it one of ours?"
"I...don't think so. It looks civilian."
"Hmm...this far from the Outer Rim, I doubt that it's a Separatist trick."
"I say that we check it out. It's about time this mission get heated up." A gleeful smile pulled along the padawan's lips at thought of a heart pounding space battle. Then she glanced to a scowling Jedi Master, "I-I mean...It's a part of a Jedi's responsibility to safeguard the people."
"Much better, Padawan Tano..." A humored Kenobi replied before sinking into a thoughtful look, rubbing his beard above his lip, "*Sigh*...Even though I have a bad feeling about it, I suppose that we can't ignore it. Where is the signal originating from?"
"According to the computer..." She took a moment to punch in the appropriate commands, "...the Merson system."
"Yes...That area was notorious for pirate raids and the likes. However, the intelligence reports on that area say that CIS forces had push the pirates out of the sector."
"And with the Trellen Trade Route closed off to the tinnies, the pirates must have kicked them out. It's obvious!"
"You can not always trust what's simply apparent, Ahsoka... ..."
The young Togruta glanced to her surrogate mentor as he started the hyperspace calculations. Had it been her own master, he would had made some boisterous claim to trash the pirates in five seconds flat and make it back to Coruscant before dinner. Master Kenobi was much different, though. Despite being Anakin's teacher, the two men had night and day attitudes. The famed Skywalker, the Hero Without Fear, jumped at the chance for battle where High General Kenobi, the Negotiator, was reluctant to even move for his lightsaber. As the tiny shuttle zoomed back into realspace and prepared to jump to Merson, the older Jedi openly projected a calm displeasure that Ahsoka would had expect from any Master on the High Council. She sighed, slowly pushing the lever forward and propelling their small ship into hyperspace once again.
Of course only Master Kenobi could make a space battle with pirates sound like a chore, The Jedi girl thought quietly in back of her mind, where High Master couldn't sense, I wonder if he would let anything interesting happen to him now that Skyguy isn't his padawan anymore.
Streaking stars flew past the cockpit as the Jedi's shuttle once again exited out of hyperspace. The viewport suddenly filled with the site of a dark brown surface, pocketed with craters and giant cracks. The tiny starship shot it's thrusters and the view shifted to the left, allowing Ahsoka to see the edge of the stony body and to it's thousands of sister planetoids. The Merson Asteroid Field, an area of nothing but rock, rock, and more rock. Several planetary orbits of asteroids ranging from a few meters wide to the size of a small moon...a massive speed bump for several hyperroutes. The enormous gravity field pulled out any nearby starship journeying out of lightspeed and forced the vessel to cross it's length to reenter proper interstellar travel.
"Sensors are picking up a waveband signal" The older Jedi announced as his hands danced over controls, "It's the same distress signal from hyperspace. It appears we're still on the right track."
"We shouldn't always trust what's simply apparent, right Master Kenobi?" The young Togruta posed with small smirk.
"Your quite right, young one." The High Master nodded and smiled to the girl before his feature formed back into a somber calm, "Let's proceed with caution. The Merson pirates love to sneak up onto starships traveling through their asteroid field."
"This star system is perfect for piracy." The Jedi girl related, "It's almost like someone made it for that propose."
"The entire starfleet couldn't destroy a whole planet, Ahsoka. It would take a thousand ships with more firepower than I've seen...or something far worst than I would like to imagine... ..."
"Moving into the asteroid field at one-half impulse."
The shuttle stock forward slowly, lazily listing around giant planetoids and their smaller cousins. Ahsoka frowned and sighed silently as she operated the helm, there was little to see. Kenobi had remind quiet, crossing his arms of his chest as he gazed out the viewport, not focusing on any specific point. The Force bristled around the High Master, leading the girl to surmise that he was searching for survivors with his own senses rather than the shuttle's. Pulling past a medium-sized asteroid, the two were suddenly faced with a small point of light. Then it was gone. Before Ahsoka could blink, the light had reappeared and then -just as quickly- disappeared again. It flashed once more, it was red light that was hard to miss with bleak backdrop of rocks and black space. As the Jedi's shuttle moved closer, the young Togruta could make out the lines of a cylinder-like object that could only be an escape pod.
"An escape pod sending a distress signal...Ha! Makes sense." The older Jedi snickered, "It looks large enough to carry a few souls inside. Hopefully we're not too late."
"Master, maybe the shuttle's scanners search for more metallic signatures in the area. Maybe we'll find more escape pods or the wreckage of a ship."
"Alright then..." The Negotiator quickly started punching in commands to his controls as Ahsoka moved the tiny vessel closer to the pod. The shuttle's universal airlock easily attache to any other and thus left only the matter of piloting the ship to the hutch of the escape pod. Just a steady hand and a good ey-, "Wait!" The Jedi Master exclaimed, "Something's not right! I'm not detecting lifesigns or even an organic patterns in that pod. It's empty... ..."
"Wha-" Just as Ahsoka asked the cockpit lit up with lights as the proximity alert sounded. The young Togruta checked her displays readouts, "Four crafts have exited out of hyperspace!"
"The sensors say their starfighers" The High Master reported for his own controls, "Heavily armed and coming our way. It's a trap!"
Author's Note: This is fun, short type of story. It has a defined ending if you were to read the comic -don't you dare- so don't expect too much from your comments. Hey, I love them, just don't be weird about my spelling and grammar. Believe me, I KNOW about my spelling and grammar!
Peace!