Disclaimer: I still don't own any of the characters or concepts in this story... unfortunately

Anakin remained lost in his thoughts for the remainder of the journey. As a Padawan, and even as an accomplished Jedi Knight, he had rebelled against meditation, longing for the thrills found in flying and duelling. It came effortlessly to him now though, as he sat with his legs crossed in front of him on the small cot that passed for his bed on the ship, memories and images of Padmé surfacing in his mind, only to be forced back into the comforting blackness of the mental void he had created to block such painful memories. It hadn't taken Anakin long to develop this technique – he'd had no choice. During the Clone Wars, he couldn't afford to let himself become distracted by wandering thoughts and emotions, which may lead to a mistake or oversight proving fatal for him or his men: both were equally bad in Anakin's eyes. Consequently, he had developed a system where he would shield the sensitive parts of his mind, even from himself, whenever he needed to be in control of his emotions and indulge in them only once he had reached such a meditative state that he could view each one calmly, impassively, as a casual observer might.

He was extremely grateful for this technique now. The news of Padmé's death had visibly shaken Anakin, he had seen the other Jedi notice, but thankfully, none had pressed him at the time. Before they did, Anakin determined that he would strive to stay his emotions and divert everyone's attention to the more pressing matter at hand: what had happened. The one man who seemed to have knowledge of Padmé had spoken of her like she had died many years ago, which gave Anakin hope, as either he had been delusional, or there was far more at work here – meaning her fate might not be sealed.

Anakin stayed as he was, pondering what might have happened, slowly and methodically proposing and discarding theories, for hours, until eventually a slight tremor in the Force told him the others had sensed their destination drawing near. Breathing slowly, he began to extract himself from his meditative trance, uncrossing his legs and stretching himself out as he did so. Wincing slightly from the feeling, Anakin began to massage the blood back into his numbed legs and allowed his feet to carry him towards the bridge of the ship, bracing himself for the conflict he suspected was far from over – if the base that had sent them here was now a smouldering crater, he didn't hold much hope for the future of their new destination...

It took what he estimated was another 10 minutes before they exited hyperspace. Out of habit, they didn't land on the planet marked on the navicomputer, aware that piloting what he assumed was a large recognisably 'rebel' craft straight into a controlled area would immediately draw attention to themselves. Of the many lessons the Clone Wars had taught the Jedi, the importance of stealth was one of the most valuable and costly. Following a practised procedure, they decided to leave their main craft orbiting a small moon near the planet and disembark in the strange single-man fighters Anakin and Obi-Wan had discovered earlier.

Despite the carefully disciplined emotions of the four Jedi, there was a palpable air of suppressed excitement as they made their way to the hangar and began to inspect the ships. They bore a vague resemblance to Y-Wing fighters, mused Anakin, but instead of the two thruster columns at the back of the ship, these had two wing structures, protruding perpendicular to the rest of the craft. He also noted the vacant space for an astrodroid companion, but didn't feel it worthy of mentioning, given the inherent lack of droids on the main ship.

Having completed his initial inspection of the ship, Anakin wasted no time in getting behind the controls of his fighter and tentatively edging it out of the hangar. As soon as he was clear, his hesitance vanished as his pilots' instincts took over. Noticing a button resembling the one he would use to switch his Jedi fighter to an attack configuration, he eagerly pressed it, feeling the change in the controls immediately. The ship responded far more easily to his touch, moving faster and more nimbly than it had done before; as he began experimenting with the ship's capabilities, trying spins and rolls, he heard Obi-Wan's voice over the intercom, "Anakin, the 'X' shape, how did you do that?". Glancing back to try and identify what Kenobi was talking about, Anakin was startled to discover the rear wings of his ship had split apart to become 4 sperate extensions to the ship, forming what he assumed was an attack formation. Hurriedly, he relayed the information to the other masters, and watched as they slowly copied his discovery. To his surprise, Yoda seemed to have little trouble adapting to the ships, using the Force to compensate for his small stature's inability to reach all necessary controls.

Of the four of them, Anakin mastered the strange ships the fastest, which was unsurprising, given his extensive experience and love of piloting anything that would move. As a result of this, it was mutually accepted that he would be the one to lead the landing approach on the new base – focussing on remaining undetected until they determined the identities and intentions of the planet's inhabitants: everyone knew they couldn't bring themselves to allow another massacre to go unchallenged. The plan was for Anakin to fly a solo reconnaissance mission first, gathering information of the location of the place and identifying possible concealed landing spots to provide an escape option should the need arise. Once he had done that, he would lead the other Jedi in fast and low, hopefully slipping past any sentries or radar systems scanning for them.

Executing this manoeuvre was an extremely delicate matter, in order for it to work, Anakin had to remain undetected as he scouted for a landing spot, a simple enough task of flying high enough so as to avoid being spotted. However, the crucial flaw in that plan, which had been tried many times during their time as generals to great effect, was that now they were operating without a single astrodroid to control instruments such as scanners and mapping technology – Anakin would have to guess by what he could see from a small cockpit travelling at a speed fast enough to be close to undetectable. Even for the two Jedi famous for pulling off the most obscene plans in the past, this was too risky.

Reluctantly, a new idea was conceived – Yoda would build a mental picture of the human sentries monitoring the area and decide on what he thought was a genuine 'blind spot'. Once he had achieved this, he would relay the information to Anakin, who would lead the dive to the surface under the cover of night. An overwhelming tension flooded the comms in the ships as each Jedi grasped the gravity of the situation: they had one shot at this. If they were spotted on approach or during their subsequent escape, they would be deep in enemy territory with an alibi involving witnesses who had all suspiciously died in an ambush moments after meeting them and ships which would have been surrounded the moment they landed. Yoda appeared undeterred however, conveying the pinnacle of collected self-control as he slowly and methodically scanned for the Force signatures on the planet below, appearing satisfied he had caught the base perimeter guards after what Anakin guessed was ten minutes; he probed even deeper, searching for the distinctive traces of anyone who had tried to conceal themselves from detection. Eventually Anakin felt a presence pressing against his consciousness, recognising it as Yoda, he lowered his mental shields and was immediately granted a mental image of the plant below. It was concealed in a mountain surrounded by forest and at first glance appeared to have been abandoned long ago, but he could sense people concealed from sight in tall, thin towers built to resemble trees. 'Clever', he thought briefly, making a note of where each one appeared to be and mentally planning the best route, constantly altering it as he addressed new difficulties with his old plans.

The easiest option, of course, would have been to create a distraction, but the worry that even a slight deviation from the normal routine of the planet would betray their presence stopped Anakin from suggesting it. The fact that none of the other Jedi chose to voice the idea led Anakin to believe that they had come to the same conclusion.

Once he was satisfied that his work in mentally mapping his route was flawless, he gave a subtle signal to the others to assume formation behind him, which they did, forming a single unit with the ships almost touching. After waiting for them to finish, Anakin drove his ship down suddenly, plummeting towards the oncoming jungle at a speed so fast it almost became a blur for him to sense. Within seconds, he was almost upon it, and violently pulled the nose upwards, levelling the ship out over the trees for mere moments before he was upon the small clearing he had discerned the position of from Yoda's scan of the terrain. Quickly, he rolled his fighter over, skimming upside down along the trees before the clearing was upon him and he drove the nose towards the ground, turning his thrusters towards the sky and briefly propelling himself straight at the ground, before completing the flip and firing the small thrusters on the bottom of his craft to kill most of his momentum.

Despite executing what could only be descried as a near-perfect manoeuvre, he landed hard, knocking the air out of his lungs, and sat gasping for a few moments, still feeling the effects of the adrenaline rush which had controlled his frantic descent. "Out of the four of us here, why did it have to be him to lead the approach?" moaned Obi-Wan, landing seconds after Anakin touched down a small distance across the clearing. Anakin remained silent but heard Windu stifle laugh in response over the comms system, beginning the long and arduous task of sufficiently camouflaging his ship to avoid unwanted attention.

The process took a lot longer than he had expected, and light was beginning to creep into the sky in small streaks when the Jedi finally abandoned their ships to uncover whatever information they could about what had happened to them. In the semi-darkness, the four cloaked figures appeared to glide over to the edge of the jungle, vanishing into the shadows like phantoms and leaving the clearing deserted once again.

Thanks for reading, I hope people liked this chapter, and don't get too mad at me for taking my time to introduce the original trilogy characters to the story! They will feature, trust me. Thanks again to everyone who's reviewed this and for the support it's getting. Feel free to let me know if you have any ideas or things you want me to try (like more varied viewpoints etc) I'll try and accommodate as much as I can. Until then, enjoy! - AW117