Chapter 2 – A leap of faith
Upon entering the guard station the first thing Jarvik noticed is that there had just been a battle there. Dozens of clone troopers were lying dead on the floor. Ahsoka and the two Padawans were almost in a state of shock, their sabers still ignited.
"What happened to the clones?!" Jarvik screamed as he entered. Slowly Ahsoka snapped back to reality. "They attacked us with no warning, and almost succeeded in killing us". She paused. "But that's not why I called you here. The Jedi Temple has been attacked'. She paused again, with tears welling up in her eyes. "Everyone there was killed, younglings, civilian employees, even the few Jedi." she sobbed.
Jarvik was stunned. The news seemed impossible, but deep inside The Force confirmed that it was true.
"Who did this? How did this happen?" Jarvik asked in a breathless voice. Ahsoka briefly regained her composure before replying.
"It was Anakin. He has been turned to the dark side," she said. Jarvik could sense Ahsoka's confusion and disbelief, and the evidence of her inner tumult was clear as she struggled to explain, "He is now a Sith Lord. He calls himself.. Darth Vader. He led an army of clone troopers into the temple and ... and..." she struggled to complete the sentence "and he slaughtered everyone."
As the news sank in Jarvik approached the communication console to see if there was any other news to be gathered. He tried to contact other Jedi, but no one answered. He reached out to the Force and could only sense a few dozen Jedi throughout the entire galaxy. He realized that the others had probably been killed by their own troops. Then he found the distress signal from the Temple.
"Ahsoka, make preparations to leave Obroa Skai".
"What about our mission?" she exclaimed.
"Our presence here only endangers this world. The Sith will no doubt come after us once they realize that the clones have failed to eliminate us." He turned to the two Padawans, who still looked stunned. "Nuvuti, Sleedo, your lives are about to become much more interesting". They stared blankly at him, not knowing what to do. Jarvik groaned inwardly, These damn kids need to be told how to do everything. He set his jaw and growled, "Nuvuti, keep a watch for any incoming traffic, especially for Republic Cruisers, and Sleedo, round up as many Astromechs as you can and get them onto the corvette. Ahsoka, come with me to the corvette, we need to prepare for launch and leave ASAP!" He was referring to the modified Corellian corvette, the Jedi Arrow, assigned to them, which to the untrained eye looked like an ordinary Corellian corvette (say like Bail Organa's) but was modified with neutroium hull plating, enhanced sublight and hyperdrive systems and an impressive weapons and deflector shielding upgrade that made it a deadly war vessel in its own right. Nevertheless it would be no match for a fleet of Republic heavy cruisers, and he had no doubt that such a fleet was already on its way to Obroa Skai. Oh, and he had no crew to man the massive corvette. He could only hope that Sleedo would be able to find enough Astromechs to run the ship, otherwise it would be a very short trip.
Jarvik and Ahsoka boarded the ship and found that there were a few clone troopers guarding it. They were easily dispatched. Much to their relief they discovered that the ship was fueled, stocked up and ready for space flight. Sleedo arrived with 100 Astromechs, all whirring and beeping while they followed him. Jarvik thought about asking where he had found so many droids on such short notice, but decided to let it go for now. Instead he reached for his communicator with the intent of calling Nuvuti. Turns out she called him at that very instant.
"Master, an entire fleet has just dropped out of hyperspace. They should be in orbit in 20 minutes. Oh, and they have 5 of the new Mark IV cruisers". 'We can't outrun Mark IVs' The Jedi Master thought to himself, 'We're in trouble'. "Nuvuti, get your Twi'lek keister over here now unless you want to stay behind and give the arriving force a tour of the library".
"I'm already on my way Master". She arrived in less than a minute.
The four Jedi entered the bridge and Jarvik barked "Ahsoka, you drive; hopefully you learned a few tricks from Skywalker, we're going to need them. Sleedo, you take starboard defenses, Nuvuti you take port and I will take aft. Ahsoka, get us out of here now!"
Ahsoka was a step ahead of him, having already initiated the prelaunch sequence. As she pulled back on the yoke the massive corvette became airborne and then went into a steep climb to exit the atmosphere, its engine roaring at maximum thrust. At this point the invading fleet was close enough to see the corvette exit the atmosphere and break orbit. As Jarvik had hoped the fleet focused its attention on them, ignoring the defenseless world of Obroa Skai. And as unfortunately expected the Mark IV cruisers were gaining on them. There was no hope of escape. Not even hyperspace would provide refuge from the chasing pack. They would be able to track them and even overtake them in hyperspace.
"Ahsoka, how long until they are in weapons range?" After a brief pause she muttered "Two minutes". Jarvik knew that they would be blasted out of the sky. The Sith were not interested in taking Jedi prisoners. At this point there was nothing left but to take a leap of faith.
"Ahsoka, plot a hyperspace course into the Ruushuu Quasar."
"WHAAAT!? Do you want us to get killed? Why not fight back? At least we might take some of them down with us"
"Ahsoka, you have to trust me on this one. I'll explain more later on, but I learned during a propulsion conference two months ago (what else was I supposed to do to alleviate the boredom?) that if you jump into a Quasar while in hyperspace that a wormhole will open. We will be able to escape and they will think we died."
"Ok" Ahsoka replied sotto voce, unconvinced of his explanation, while entering the coordinates in the Nav Computer. "But I have a bad feeling about this". The Mark IVs had caught up with the Jedi Arrow and had launched a barrage of Proton torpedoes. Just as Ahsoka was about to launch into hyperspace one of the torpedoes struck the Jedi Arrow. The corvette's upgraded shields kept the torpedo's antimatter safely away from the hull, but were unable to dissipate all the antimatter before the jump into hyperspace. As the Jedi Arrow entered the Quasar moments later they saw the expected wormhole open. What happened next they did not expect. The antimatter on the shields was affecting the wormhole which became more than a run of the mill singularity. There was a blast of energy around them with a blinding flash and they all lost consciousness.
-(-)-
Ahsoka was the first to regain consciousness. The bridge was dark, except for the emergency lighting system. Also she thought that the bridge looked odd, the colors seemed unnatural. Jarvik and the Padawans were starting to wake.
"Status?" Jarvik inquired in a weak voice.
"All systems are offline. Only emergency systems are in place" Ahsoka replied.
Attempting to force himself into wakefulness, Jarvik ordered, "We need to get them back online. We're blind and defenseless. Where are the astromechs?". At that moment the lights came back on.
"They're already making repairs Master," replied Sleedo. "Propulsion should be back online in a moment."
"Good. I hate drifting. How long have we been out?"
Nuvuti piped up. "Only a few minutes Master. The Chronometer did not malfunction." She paused. "Master, why does everything look so strange, things almost look surreal.."
"I know what you mean, let's get the Arrow ready for duty. First order of business is to find out where we came out of the wormhole. Then ….". Jarvik was interrupted by the sound of an explosion on the hull. "Now what?" he moaned as went to one of the viewing ports on the bridge. He definitely did not expect to find what he saw. "It appears that we are in high orbit around a blue planet. And we are in the middle of some sort of battle…" Another explosion interrupted him. "Are deflectors holding?"
Nuvuti replied "No deflectors. Whatever they are shooting us with, it's bouncing right off the neutronium hull".
"Thank the Force for small favors, now let's this ship back online. And nobody say another word about how things look strange until then." Jarvik ordered, wondering what had actually happened to them and wondering himself why everything, including his crew, looked odd.
-(-)-
For those who don't know what a Corellian corvette is, it's the model of space ship that Princess Leia is in during the opening scene in Star Wars IV: A New Hope.
You can find it on Wikipedia using the keywords: corellian corvette
