I quickly opened the hatch, climbed out of the gunship, and ran to Obi-Wan and Anakin, removing my helmet and jetpack as I ran.
"Sorry I'm late." I said. "Long story. If this heist goes on successful, I need a ride home." I said with a laugh.
Obi-Wan smiled. "Welcome Daniel." I shook his hand, then Anakin's.
"We're sorry but we must be off...Daniel, are you alright?" As soon as I touched his hand, my vision started to blur. Once, full dark, twice, three times, then, I blinked. I saw Anakin at the feet of a hooded figure, on his knees.
"Rise, Lord Vader." The hooded figure said. The figure's voice pierced me, it was raspy, and simply creepy. However, in some weird way, it was soothing, assuring.
Then I blinked. Back to Anakin and Obi-Wan.
"Huh? Oh...yeah, I'm fine. Come on, let's go to your fighters." I said. I looked at Anakin, he smiled at me. Anakin and I were often told that he and I could be twins if I hadn't had blonde hair. We were basically the same people. Growing up slaves, rescued by a now dead mentor, one arm, the list goes on. However, physically, yeah, we were pretty much the same. The past three years, Anakin's changed only his hair. Me? I wouldn't have recognized myself three years ago. My hair is longer, I'm more muscular, taller, everything.
"Let's get going." He said. We started to walk towards the fighters.
"Now," Obi-Wan started, "Cody has everything working fine. Your job isn't too big. Just whatever you do, until you have our clearance, do not fire on Grievous's ship until Anakin or I give command. Understood?"
"Yes master Kenobi." I said.
"Alright now, we must be going. Get to the deck as soon as possible. May the Force be with you."
"May the Force be with you, my friends." I said. They climbed into their ships, closed the hatch, and started to hover out. I turned and met a few clones.
"Awaiting your orders, sir." One of them said.
"You." I pointed to the one in front. "Take me to the deck. The rest of you go man the battery cannons."
"Yes sir." They all said in unison, they formed out.
"This way sir." The one I called said to me. We started to run towards the dock. We hit a dead end, with a door at the end. "There's the elevator sir. I have to get back to my men now."
"Thank you soldier." I said. He ran off, I turned towards the elevator. I hit a few buttons to call the elevator down. It arrived almost immediately. I walked in and hit the button for the deck. The elevator shot up.
I thought for a minute. I'd been a General in battles before, but now a General of a whole ship? This was a whole new task. I was excited, but also nervous. Everyone on this ship's life now depended on my tactics. One false mistake and I could have us all dead. The elevator stopped. I stepped out and was immediately greeted by Commander Cody.
"General Stellan." He said bowing before me.
"No need for that, Cody." I said. "Is everything in order?"
"Everything, General, except one small thing to report." He replied.
"What is it?" I said, stopping.
"When General Kenobi and Skywalker left, a vulture droid made its way inside. There's a small droid on top of it. We have our men surrounding it. It hasn't moved since." He showed me on a camera recording a droid standing on top of a vulture droid. The droid was completely frozen.
"I'll go investigate." I said. Stay here, make sure everything stays under control.
"Sir! Wait one moment!" Cody called as I had started to call the elevator.
"Yes, commander?"
"We believe that this droid is one of Grievous's Jedi hunters." He said.
"We destroyed the last one when I was a padawan. This should be no challenge." I said as the elevator opened. "It'll be okay." I said, stepping in. "I won't be long." The elevator shut. I grabbed my lightsaber and put it in the grasp of my mechanical arm. The one thing I really liked about it was it wasn't much different from having a regular hand. I didn't feel pain in it, and that was a plus. It wasn't that bad, having a mechanical arm. I waited as the elevator shot down. Then it slowed, then, it stopped. The door opened. I was at the landing dock. I looked over to where the vulture droid had landed. Sure enough, it was surrounded by clones, a Jedi Hunter Droid on top.
"Evening gentlemen!" I said walking over. "Lower your weapons...let me see, ah, you." I pulled one aside. Go man that cannon down there, I'm gonna need you to shoot down the vulture once I take care of this droid. The rest of you stay here. I might need backup."
"Yes sir." They all replied.
Using the Force, I jumped and did a flip onto the vulture droid. As I landed, I ignited my lightsaber. The green blade sprung to life.
"Welcome to the ship! I'd give you a more warm welcome, but see...you're kind of the enemy." I raised my lightsaber. "You're also going to be the first duel I've had in three years with my new blade. This is exciting!"
"FOOLISH HUMAN. I AM GENERAL GRIEVOUS'S PERFECTED JEDI HUNTER UNIT. I WILL NOT FALL TO SOME SIMPLETON JEDI." It raised its arms, in each was a lightsaber. He ignited them both at the same time. Two red blades emerged. He then faced the butts of the swords against each other. It made a clicking sound. The blades were adjoined, it made a double-bladed lightsaber. "I AM MODEL DB-22. PREPARE TO DIE."
"Isn't that what your battle droids say before they die?" I said. I stabbed my lightsaber at the droid's face. He quickly met my blade and swiped at me with the other end of the sword. I ducked to avoid the blade. The droid wouldn't be hard to beat. The only problem was that wherever the first attack came from, it would repeat on the opposite side. No real time to strike. The droid went to hit me in the face with the handle of the sword, I saw the opportunity. I swung my lightsaber in an uppercutting motion. The blade fell in half. Luckily I cut the right side of the original lightsaber in half, so all that was left was one lightsaber.
The droid looked at me in disgust. It swiped to slice me in half, I blocked by turning my lightsaber sideways and holding it just above my head. I pushed the droid back. It took another swipe. I dodged it this time, my lightsaber under the droid's arm, I swung upwards. The droids arm came off. Sadly, it just picked up the lightsaber and started wielding with the other. This time, it fought faster. Trying to tire me. I just responded with less strikes, but stronger ones. Finally, the opportunity came. We were in a blade lock.
"Men!" I called to the clones, "Drop your weapons!" They all did. Using the force, I grabbed a gun. Lightsaber in my left, holding off DB, the blaster came into my hand and I shot the droid in it's chest. It faltered. It was on fire in the chest. I dropped the gun, and I took a big swing at his head. It came off with a clang! The final Jedi Hunter was gone. "Men, pick up your weapons." I threw the gun down to the clone I borrowed it from. "This vulture droid seems to be completely shut down. Just to make sure, when I jump down, we're going to use the cannon and blow it up. Understood?"
"Yes sir." They all responded.
I pulled out my communicator, and called the clone sitting at the cannon. "Soldier, as soon as I am out of range of the droid, gun it down."
"Yes sir." The clone responded. I quickly flipped down the vulture droid and started running away from it. I got behind a crate and called the clone. "Fire away!" I looked up and the vulture droid was trying to get away. As soon as it got into the air, it met the cannon's blast and blew up. "Captain," I said calling the captain on my communication device, "the droid is gone. I'm gonna need a squad down here incase of other attacks."
"Right away sir." Cody responded. "Are you making your way back to the deck right now?"
"Yes Cody. I'll stay there until more suspicious activity happens."
"Roger that sir." We clicked off. I looked for the nearest clone.
"You, gather your men." I said when I found one. "We're gonna need a squad down here to watch for suspicious activity. Some are coming now. Ready your men."
"Yes sir." He responded. I started to make my way towards the elevator.
When I was inside, I thought about Anakin and Obi-Wan. It was dangerous out there, what if they hadn't even made it to Grievous's ship? And if they did, how will they survive? I have absolute faith in the both of them, but two Jedi and one automaton droid against a whole spacecruiser of Separatist droids? I'm no protocol droid, but I'm sure the odds of that have to be something insane, like five hundred and seventy two to one. The elevator door opened. I was greeted by Commander Cody.
"Sir." He started. "We've just received contact from General Kenobi. They've made contact with Grievous's ship. However, their fighters are incredibly damaged."
"How do they plan to get back to us?" I asked.
"We don't know sir." Cody responded. "At this point, we just have to hope they can rescue Palpatine. If they do, we can send a gunship over."
"Alright Cody. Standby on that." I said.
"Roger, sir."
"Captain," I started, "has there been any new attacks on our ship from the inside."
"No sir." He responded. "However we're taking heavy fire from battery shots. Our shields are almost down. We're taking heavy fire from one of the batteries symmetrical to Grievous's ship."
I thought on this, then I had it. "Do we have any fighters?"
"We have one sir. What do you propose?" The captain responded.
"We need to shut down tho-" The ship was rocked. We'd just taken another shot. "Prepare the fighter. I'm going to storm the ship."
"Sir, you have strict orders from General Kenobi to not-"
"Do anything without his clearance? Do you think Obi-Wan would want this ship destroyed?" I asked. "Prepare the fighter, those are my orders." I walked away then and looked at the battle going on outside the ship. I watched for about ten minutes. Every little while a blast would come our way and the ship would shake.
"Sir, the fighter is ready. What is your plan?" Cody said.
"I'm going to try to gun down a few of the batteries. When things get hopeless in the fighter, I'm going to land inside and take out the batteries. As soon as I've done what I can, I'll call you, and you need to fire at will at the ship, whether I'm inside or not. Got it?"
"Yes sir. Good luck." He responded.
"In my training Cody, there is no luck, but the Force." The elevator door opened, I stepped inside. "May the Force be with you." The door shut.