Chapter 2: Orders and Suggestions
Wreckage floated amongst the stars of deep space, Obi-Wan stared out at it and the other cargo ships surrounding it. He stood on the bridge of the super star destroyer Executor, along wit his fleet he was trying to pinpoint where the rebels that had recently attacked the convoy before him had disappeared to, he was eager to find them. Obi-Wan sensed his appointed admiral approach him from behind, he turned, his dark robes swished and settled as he faced Admiral Piett.
Piett stared at the mask covering Obi-Wan's face for a moment, he had never seen his commander without that mask, though he heard stories that half of Obi-Wan's face was covered in a hideous burn, he also did not know the name Obi-Wan, the man he stood before was known as Darth Vader only.
"Milord," Piett began. "We have received a report from Grand Moff Tarkin himself on the Death Star."
"What is the situation Admiral?" Obi-Wan asked his voice filtered through the scrambler in the mouth piece of the mask, coming out in a deep tone. Moff Tarkin was overseeing the final construction of the Death Star, Obi-Wan was not fond of him he was a slimy, backstabbing sort of guy. Tarkin reciprocated Obi-Wan's feeling, he was not fond of the Dark Lord Vader either.
"Luckily sir this attack has not put construction behind." Piett stated, for a moment this sounded like good news. "However the construction is behind anyway."
Now it was bad news, it frustrated the Sith Lord to almost the point of anger, not quite, almost. If Obi-Wan was angry it was likely that at least one crew member would lose their life.
"I see," Obi-Wan said. "Well have you been successful in tracking the Rebels that escaped?"
"No Lord Vader, I apologize. The best we can say is that they made a series of randomized jumps, we tracked them first to Cato Neimoidia and then were able to determine they jumped to Ren-Var, we lost them from there sir, as best we can determine they may have either made another jump to Kashyyyk or Nul Hutta."
Obi-Wan balled up a gloved fist and resisted the urge to snap Piett's neck. The admiral looked weary of this and gulped. Without a word Obi-Wan pushed past him, Piett dared not ask where he was going.
XxX
Still boiling over with anger Obi-Wan stepped into the communication room of his ship, tossing an officer who happened to be using it in the deep pit under the massive holoprojector. Obi-Wan keyed in a frequency and stepped onto the metal pad in the camera's vision, he kneeled, the hiss of hydraulics in his mechanical leg was the only sound in the room.
Moments later an image of the Emperor flickered into existence.
"Rise my friend." Sidious commanded his voice raspy. Obi-Wan stood. "I sense your anger even from here on Coruscant my apprentice, what has caused it?"
"I have the report you requested." Obi-Wan stated, Sidious assumed Obi-Wan did not like what the report said, he doubted he would be greatly pleased with it either.
"Very well."
"The Rebels escaped after their attack." Obi-Wan said.
That was not unexpected, Sidious was not sure why this anger Obi-Wan so much.
"What of the construction on the Death Star?"
"It is not been put back because of the attempted sabotage, it is behind schedule however."
"What?!" Sidious snapped. "Perhaps Grand Moff Tarkin had not been fully motivated…. I shall go to the Death Star personally to inquire about the problem. Meanwhile continue searching for any clues to the rebels whereabouts."
"As you wish my master." Obi-Wan said, his anger still not sedated.
"This war must be ended Lord Vader. The Empire can not even locate the base of a band of criminals, that does not help improve its fear factor in the eyes of its people."
"I will find the Rebels sir, and the Jedi that are helping them. When I do I will kill them all."
XxX
When Anakin woke up he stepped into a fresher and ran a shower, the water was colder than Hoth when it hit his bare skin, he turned up the intensity of the oncoming stream and just stood there for a while, the freezing cold water kept him wide awake, alert, and obviously cold while he pondered the events of yesterday. Obi-Wan was alive, he had escaped death again… it gave Anakin so much pain to know that his one time friend was now a Sith Lord, and he felt sick whenever he thought he killed him, only to feel even worse when he found out that Obi-Wan was still alive and he had to kill him all over again, this had happened twice. Anakin killed the water and stepped out of the shower, he knew he should not have, the soap lay untouched on a side part of the shower.
He stepped up to the mirror and looked at himself, the scar on his eye was blood red and the rest of his face was a gray ivory color, cold water he supposed would do that to a person. She wrapped a towel around himself and stepped into his room, Padmé slept silently, not wanting to wake her up he crept quietly to the closet to get changed, despite the fact he was still soaked and was under the potential risk of hypothermia. When he reached the closet he dried himself off with the towel as best as he could and dropped it on the floor, he pulled a pair of dark pants on, a shirt, and then his black leather vest, after that he fitted himself with all his Jedi trappings and stepped out of the walk-in closet, now fully clothed.
Once more he tried to not wake Padmé up, nevertheless her eye fluttered open and she sat up.
"Anakin," She said tiredly. "Where are you going?"
"To meditate," Anakin admitted, he didn't know what else to do.
Padmé yawned loudly. "Why? Shouldn't you go see Master Yoda and Master Windu? Maybe they can help you through dealing with Obi-Wan."
Anakin sighed, he had considered that. "Maybe…."
"Don't shut the Jedi out Anakin." Padmé said, her sleepiness faded and her face became hard and serious. "Don't ever shut them out, Obi-Wan did and look what happened…."
"I don't… right now I don't want to think anymore about Obi-Wan." Anakin said, it was too painful. "Maybe I'll go see Yoda and Mace later. Right now I just need to… meditate."
"Alright." Padmé said as her husband left the room. She sighed feeling sympathetic for her husband, he had always felt pain about Obi-Wan before, but recent events had magnified his suffering. She hoped he would get through it.
Just so none of you ask this is not leading Anakin down the dark path or anything.
