Chapter 2: Rescue Mission?
Fortunately, the flight to Akoshissss didn't take overly long. Thanks to R3 tracing Master Eerin's comm signal, Luat and Jaylen were able to find the general area she had been, which was near a large asteroid field several light-years away from the moon itself. Looking through his cockpit, Luat couldn't see any signs of a ship nearby, neither Master Eerin's nor any others.
"Jaylen, do you see anything?" he asked, only for his friend to reply in negative. "R3, keep scanning," he told his astromech. "If something happened to Master Eerin, then there will be evidence. We just need to find it."
He and Jaylen proceeded in silence for a few minutes, sweeping back and forth across the asteroid field while attempting to find any traces of debris, scorch marks, engine emissions, anything. He and Jaylen had even tried reaching out with the Force to sense her presence, but neither of them had a wide enough range or enough familiarity with Master Eerin's Force signature for that to work.
Eventually, though, R3 beeped triumphantly, getting Luat's attention. "What'd you find, buddy?" he asked, studying the readouts that were popping up on his dashboard. They were for a ship, definitely, but… "That can't be right," he muttered absently. The profile was all wrong for a Delta-7, and there was no way that Master Eerin would have been flying something else. And there were no signs of Republic forces nearby, that would have been one of the first things they would have been told.
"Luat?" Jaylen asked over comm. "My scans are picking up a fighter coming in, high speed. It's not Master Eerin's either."
"Yeah, I see it too," he replied. "Try and stay ready. Something's not right here."
That something was very quickly found out as the starfighter came into view. It was a squat, ugly, one-person Skyhopper, with two wide sweeping wings and a plow-like front, and its intentions were quickly proved when it spat a series of blaster bolts at them before veering off.
"Kriff!" Luat sent his fighter into a desperate sideways roll, barely dodging the attack, and the litany of swearing over his comm told him Jaylen was in a similar position. "Looks like we can guess what happened to Master Eerin!"
"Forget that!" Jaylen shouted over the comm. "That sithspit pilot's going down!" From beside him, Luat could see Jaylen's orange fighter dart ahead of him in hot pursuit of the Skyhopper.
"Jaylen, wait!" Luat called out over the comm, but got no response. Sighing, he steeled himself and powered up his own thrusters, flying off after Jaylen. The two of them combined should be able to take down the Skyhopper, even if Luat himself wasn't the best pilot.
Whoever it was behind the controls of that ship, Luat could almost instantly tell that they knew their stuff. The ship danced through the asteroid belt, dodging both stray pieces of rock and shots from Jaylen, who was matching their maneuvering turn for turn. In contrast, Luat was falling behind, barely able to squeeze off a few shots of his own in favor of making sure he didn't crash into anything.
Gritting his teeth, Luat wrenched his fighter to the side, narrowly dodging another asteroid, before growling, "To hell with this," and pulling out of the asteroids altogether. Fortunately, he was still able to make out the flashes of blasterfire ahead of him that marked where Jaylen was still unsuccessfully chasing the Skyhopper. As he pushed closer to them, closing the distance thanks to traveling in a straight line, R3 beeped worriedly.
"What do you mean another power source just showed up?" Luat exclaimed, before his senses screamed at him to dodge. Acting on instinct, he snap-rolled up to his left, and his astromech screamed as several red blaster bolts whizzed past him.
Another Skyhopper had joined the dogfight, darting from out of the asteroid field with guns blazing. Now, Luat was stuck, forcing himself into more and more frantic evasive maneuvers to try and get out from under the ship's guns. Luat could only grimace helplessly as the new Skyhopper started to close in on him, tracking his every move effortlessly. His comm crackled as an unfamiliar hissing laughter came through it.
"Foolish Jedi," the Skyhopper's pilot gloated. "Your feeble attempts cannot escape Tyrrassk!" The bastard was broadcasting on an open frequency so that his comm could pick it up, Luat realized, and he redoubled his efforts to avoid his pursuer, even attempting to dive back into the asteroid field for some more cover. But Tyrrassk expertly closed off his movements, using deliberately placed blaster fire to herd him out into open space to line up an easy shot.
"Damn it!" Luat swore, cursing his own weakness as a pilot. A glance to the side told him that Jaylen was still busy with his own dogfight. I'm a sitting duck out here compared to this guy, he realized, and for once the cold feeling in his spine did not come from one of his visions.
"Hahahaha! Now die, Jedi!" Tyrrassk yelled out over the comm, and all Luat could do was pull one more desperate roll while wincing in preparation for the end. But when the blaster bolts came, they weren't from the Skyhopper.
Blue bolts lanced past his ship, hitting Luat's pursuer dead in the center of the cockpit and killing its pilot instantly. As his would-be killer exploded in a suitably spectacular fireball, another Delta-7 zoomed past, followed by several V-19s. Out of the corner of his vision, he could see another squad of the fighters harassing the first Skyhopper, the clone pilots forcing it back and forth until it ran headfirst into a stray asteroid and exploded.
An image of Master Eerin materialized on his holo shortly after. "You two," she said in a tone of exasperation mixed with what seemed to be fondness, "Have no idea how much trouble you're in."
-o-
It turned out that Master Eerin had indeed been ambushed by the pilots, Trandoshan freelance hunters from what she could guess. Except unlike him and Jaylen, she had outmaneuvered them and escaped, returning with an entire battalion of clones at her back. Thanks to how urgent her request for reinforcements was, however, a single Star Destroyer was all they could spare. It was inside of that Star Destroyer, the Reforger, that Luat and Jaylen were now, getting chewed out by Master Eerin.
"–And if I hadn't shown up when I did, you two would have been killed!" She finished, glaring at the two of them in disappointment. "So, what do you two have to explain for yourselves?"
Luat shifted uncomfortably, glancing at Jaylen, who was probably feeling even worse than he was considering she was his Master. His friend caught his questioning look and shrugged, indicating that it was up to Luat how much he wanted to say.
"Er… Master Eerin," he started, flinching under her stern gaze. He felt like a youngling again, being lectured by Master Drallig after a prank gone wrong. "You read our files, right? You know how I get visions sometimes?"
The Mon Calamari's glare lessened slightly. "So you got a vision of me in danger, and wanted to prevent it from coming to pass? Admirable, but–"
"Not exactly," Luat interrupted. "Master Yoda called them Force Echoes. I don't get any images out of the visions, just bits of conversation. One of them was of some guy named Bitt Panith saying he got a Jedi to experiment on, and considering you had cut off just a little bit ago, well…" he trailed off nervously when Master Eerin's gaze sharpened.
"Bitt Panith? Are you certain?" she asked seriously.
Luat couldn't do anything but nod. "That's what he was called in the vision, and I've never had them be wrong before." He explained the rest of what he had heard from the Echoes to Master Eerin, who furrowed her brow and sighed in frustration before speaking.
"In any other circumstance," she said, "I'd be sending you two to Kashyyyk anyways, with a severe reprimand for disobeying orders and almost getting yourselves killed. But if what you foresaw is correct, then that changes things."
She walked over to a nearby holotable where several clones were already standing, bringing up the image of a Muun male sporting several cybernetic implants. "This is Bitt Panith, a rogue cyberneticist suspected of working with the Separatists. I was sent here to bring him in, and found his lab here on Akoshissss by tracing his recent purchases, including the illegal trafficking of several beings and beasts off of Kashyyyk. He was getting his 'goods,'" she said the last word distastefully, "From a bounty hunter named Crovan Dane. I had originally planned to have the both of you apprehend him, while I dealt with Panith myself."
"But then you were ambushed," Jaylen said, "And we came here instead."
Master Eerin nodded. "And based on what you heard, Luat, we're already too late to stop Dane's final delivery. We have no other option but to capture Panith before he can get complete his project, those cyborgs he was speaking about in your vision."
The image of Panith vanished, replaced by a rendering of the surface of Akoshissss. "Here is his lab," Master Eerin stated, "In the middle of the valley that runs across the moon's surface. The chasm is wide enough that on its own a covert mission has no chance of making it in unspotted, so we'll have to cause a distraction of some sort before a team could go in."
As she spoke, markers began to appear on the holo, indicating where troops would be placed. "I will lead the Eighteenth Battalion in a direct assault on the compound. We expect resistance to be relatively moderate at best, and made up of mostly B1's with several Supers alongside some automated defenses." A majority of the white markers appeared inside the canyon, along with one bright blue one. "While this is going on," she continued, "A small strike team will infiltrate the lab from here," a pair of dots appeared on top of a nearby cliff. "And capture Panith himself. That team will be made up of one of you along with some of the Battalion's specialists."
"Wait," Jaylen spoke up, eyes fixed on the dots representing the strike team. "Just one of us?"
"The other one," his Master replied, "Will be undertaking a different but much more crucial mission." The image zoomed out, indicating a city a good distance away from the canyon the compound was located in. "One of you will be going on a diplomatic mission to the Trandoshan settlement on Akoshissss. We cannot afford to have them entering this conflict. If they do, then the entire planet will be throwing its weight behind the Separatists."
"Then which of us is going?" Luat asked, even though he had already come to a decision on that front.
"Decide that amongst yourselves," Master Eerin said. "Consider this a lesson in role assignment, putting each person to a task that they are more competent in."
Luat mulled the issue over mentally for a few minutes as Master Eerin turned to discuss the logistics of the distraction attack with the clone officers there. Eventually, he came to a decision, and turned to Jaylen to open his mouth, only for his friend to beat him to the punch.
"Looks like it's time for me to talk us out of trouble again, huh?" he said with a grin. "I'll go to the Trandoshans, keep them off your back while you guys nab that guy."
"Jaylen, are you sure?" Luat asked, concerned. After all of his talk of going out to make a difference, he'd half expected Jaylen to insist on joining the lab assault himself.
His confusion must have shown on his face, because Jaylen gave him a look. "Luat, you know that this mission's gonna stop the Trandoshans from openly entering the war, right?" He asked seriously. "That's kind of important, and I'm the better talker of the two of us and we both know it." Then his signature grin broke through. "Besides, I bet with my skills I'll be done with enough time left over to meet you to catch Panith," he boasted jokingly.
Out of the corner of his eye, Luat could see Master Eerin nodding approvingly. "Well said Jaylen. I'll be honest, I wasn't very certain about the Council you to be my Padawan. But after what you said just now," she continued, laying a hand on his shoulder proudly, "I know that they made the correct decision in promoting you."
As Jaylen beamed, Luat couldn't help but feel a little down himself. So not all the Masters were on board with the Padawans they were assigned? What did that mean for him, and Master Plo? What did he think about the system?
"Hey, Luat, wake up!" Jaylen said, snapping him out of his thoughts. "Captain Herc's gonna take you to meet the rest of the battalion."
"Eh? Right, right." Luat turned to see the Captain, a clone with several rusty orange stripes painted on his armor, waiting expectantly. "Lead the way Captain."
"Right this way, Commander," Herc said, turning to make his way to where the rest of his men were waiting. Luat dutifully followed behind as Jaylen left for the hangar, trying to ignore the worries burning inside of him.
-o-
"This is our Commander?" one of the clones asked incredulously. Almost all of the Eighteenth Battalion had gathered in one of the main hangars to meet their new commander, and Luat didn't think too many of them were very impressed with what they saw. "Pardon me, sir, but why should we take orders from a youngling?"
Luat flinched. That one hurt a bit, especially since it was pretty much true. He'd been promoted to Padawan extremely recently, after all, and his only live combat experience so far involved nearly getting killed in a dogfight. He wouldn't trust his own life under that kind of commander, either, let alone the lives of his men.
"Sergeant Troy!" Captain Herc snapped. "You show our Padawan Commander proper respect, or I will be having you lead the charge without a blaster."
Troy immediately quieted down, though Luat was pretty sure he was still glaring mulishly under his helmet. He was also sure that the glare turned into one of surprise when he stepped forward, holding a hand out towards the clone captain. "It's alright Herc," Luat said. "I can understand why the Sergeant is nervous. I was only appointed Padawan recently, and I don't have your experience in leading men."
He turned to address all of the clones in front of him. "As it stands now, my first order will be to tell me if I make a mistake, and correct me if necessary," he announced, earning himself some surprised murmurs. "I can't afford to be making poor decisions, not if they will result in all of us dying. You all have the experience that I don't, and I'd be a poor leader if I didn't make use of that."
There was silence for a long moment, and then all of the clones present saluted as one. "Sir, yes sir!"
Luat returned the salute happily. "Now," he said, "Let's get to business. Master Eerin and the good Captain here have come up with a plan to get into Panith's little compound." His smile turned vicious, inspired by the confidence of the clones around him. "Let's give that sleemo the worst day of his miserable life."
Chapter 2, done and dusted. Up next is the Battle of Akoshissss (damn Trandoshan planets and names wreaking havoc on my spell-check), where Luat, Bant, and the Eighteenth Battalion are going after the big scientist guy himself. And as for Jaylen, well, don't worry. He's not getting written out of the arc just like that.
But I think that's enough information on the future for now. Feel free to leave behind some feedback or constructive criticism, and I'll see you all next chapter. And as always, watch out for that friendly fire.
-Your Teammate