Another Happy Landing

Fourteen Months Earlier

Ahsoka sat the cockpit of her Delta-7, bored. Around her were four Torrents, with four more up ahead. As Ahsoka steered her fighter almost subconsciously, the young Padawan supposed that patrol duty wasn't the worst assignment she'd ever had, but it was high on the list.

After a few minutes, a holographic image of Anakin appeared. "How are things going, Snips?"

"Like watching ice melt, master." Ahsoka droned, wishing something would happen to break up the monotony.

"Well, just keep an eye out an-"

"Commander Tano, we're got unidentified vessels straight ahead." The squadron leader suddenly announced.

"Snips, you'd better get back to the Resolute, until we can figure out who that is." Anakin commanded.

Ahsoka's hand inched toward the 'Disconnect' button on her holo-projector. "Sorry master, there seems to be some interference."

"I mean, Ahsoka! Get back-"Click!

"Sorry, Skyguy," Ahsoka said sweetly, then turned her attention to her squadron, "C'mon guys, let's check this out."

"You sure, miss?" the squadron leader, Ram, asked, "This is the Garthim system, mostly unexplored by either side."

"We're just gonna make a quick detour, it'll be fine."

"You're the boss," Ram sighed with resignation. With that, nine ships steered toward Garthim VI.

#*#*#

Meanwhile, Ventress was pinching the brig of her nose, "What do you mean 'we're lost'?"

"It's seems there was a slight miscalculation, ma'am" One of the droid pilots answered, oblivious to Ventress' aggravated tone, "We intended to jump to coordinates 73298-"BOOM! Ventress vented her frustrations on the offending droid, and by extension it's ship, with a quick burst from her Fanblade.

As the aspiring Sith contemplated similar retribution against the other droid fighters, one of them suddenly spoke up. "Ma'am nine republic fighters are approaching!"

"Go and deal with them." Ventress commanded. After the droid ships left, she steered her Fanblade around to flank the Clone pilots. Shooting at living targets would be much more satisfying.

#*#*#

As Ahsoka and company approached, five droid fighters suddenly rushed up to meet them. The young Togruta and her comrades immediately evaded, scattering as they did. Ahsoka maneuvered behind one of her attackers, dispatching it with a quick burst her blasters.

A sudden beeping informed the Padawan that another fighter was now on her tail. "Ram, I'm bringing one of the Clankers to you."

"Roger."

The droid fighter continued to tail Ahsoka, firing wildly at her, as the Padawan maneuvered around and toward her squadron leader. A handful of shots struck her Delta, but did little damage. Before long, Ahsoka could see Ram moving toward her. She lined her ship up to be moving directly at the Torrent, and at the last second dipped under it.

"Surprise, Clanker!" Ram shouted, as he fired, blasting the enemy ship to debris.

Ahsoka checked with the rest of the squadron and it seemed the other three ships had been taken care of. Too easy, Ahsoka thought with pride. As if in response, three of the Torrents suddenly turned into fireballs. "Hostile incoming, right-Shhhh!" Ahsoka looked to her right to see a fresh fireball, and a fast approaching fan shaped fighter. Ventress!

Ahsoka and the four remaining Torrents quickly moved to attack the Fanblade. Ventress steered toward a nearby planet, Garthim VI. Two clone pilots moved in behind her, only for the assassin to briefly kill her engines, allowing them to pass her. In moments both were destroyed.

"Spread out!" Ahsoka shouted to her two remaining pilots, "We'll take the witch from three sides!"

Ram and the other pilot did as orders and soon the three of them had Ventress in a crossfire, with Ahsoka in the middle, Ram on the right, and the last pilot on the left, several of their shots tearing holes in the Fanblade's namesake. The hateful assassin wasn't going down that easily, however.

Pushing her damaged ship as hard as she could, Ventress maneuvered to the left, firing on the clone pilot. As her target went up in smoke, Ventress lined herself up with the final two and moved on Ahsoka firing determinedly.

Ahsoka watched in horror as the Fanblade came at her, its blasts already tearing into her Delta. Before a fatal blow could be landed, however, Ram's Torrent suddenly appeared between the two fighters.

"Buggin' out, miss." With that Ram was incinerated.

Ahsoka watched Ventress move to avoid the explosion and quickly gave chase, hungry for revenge. Not revenge, she told herself, justice.

The Togruta finally caught up to her enemy very close to the planet's atmosphere. Neither ship was in any shape for combat, but Ahsoka was certain she could end the dogfight quickly.

Ahsoka fired on the Fanblade, blasting the bottom leg right off. Her feeling of triumph as the Fanblade sank toward the planet was quickly replaced by horror when she realized the leg was now twirling its way toward her.

The young Padawan attempted to evade it, but the damage her ship had already suffered made maneuvering difficult. The debris crashed into the Jedi fighter, slamming Ahoka's head against the control panel and sending her ship spiraling toward the planet right after Ventress.

As the abused fighter went through the atmosphere and quickly descended toward Garthim VI's surface, Ahsoka desperately tried to regain control and get the nose of her ship up.

With the ground fast approaching, the Padawan was finally able to stop the Delta's spiral and lift the nose, though she was still going far too fast.

"This is gonna be rough!" Ahsoka shouted to no one, as even her R2 unit has damaged. The fighter slammed into the ground, the force of the impact thrusting Ahsoka against her restraints and skidded along for several hundred yards, bouncing and jolting as it did.

Finally, the ruined fighter came to a stop. Ahsoka was bleeding from a gash on the side of her head, was badly bruised in several places, and her throat was sore, though she didn't remember screaming.

As the young Padawan regained her senses, she noticed a small fire in front of her, one that was fast spreading. "STANG!" Ahsoka Force Pushed the ruined canopy of the cockpit off and cut herself free from the ship's restraints with her lightsaber. As fast as her aching body would allow, the Togruta ran from the wreckage. Just as it occurred to Ahsoka to use Force Run, the Delta erupted into an orange fireball, throwing the Padawan flat on her face.

Ahsoka slowly rose to her feet and turned toward the seven million credit bonfire that had recently been her Delta-7. "Master's gonna kill me." She signed.

#*#*#

The Brig of the Indestructible

"The important thing is you made out alive, Snips." Anakin said reassuringly, "What happened next?"

"Well, I took a few hours to rest and make sure none of my bones were broken." Ahsoka answered. "Then I decided to take a look around. The first thing I could see was smoke from Ventress' crash site. I just hoped she wasn't dead…yet."