Jedi Temple
1600 hours
Anakin strode down the barren cathedral halls of the Jedi Temple to the Situation Room. His robes billowed around him in his haste. He certainly wasn't early. It took him nearly two hours to locate his starship again and get under way. The sleazy Rodian at the hangars, that his ship had disappeared off to, tried to charge him double for storing his ship there 'after hours'. A simple Jedi mind trick fixed that painlessly.
Oddly, Anakin did not see any other occupants during his path to the Situation Room. Then again, it was after midnight. Everyone was probably already settled into a space. Outside the enormous windows, many ships still glided through the air. The lights of the city glittered brightly in the dark, trying to rival the beauty of the stars. Anakin always preferred the stars.
The door to the Situation Room whooshed open. It was dim with only the center console providing light. There was a hologram of Mace Windu standing with his arms crossed. Beside him in the image was Commander Wolffe. Clearly they were already in mid discussion, or perhaps Skywalker had walked in just in time.
"There are disbanded pockets of Separatists droids scattered in the debris and canyons, but we are swiftly eliminating them as we speak." Master Windu said to Obi-Wan as Anakin took a standing place beside his master. Evidently he was late.
"That's good to hear. But what about Wat Tambor?" Kenobi spoke.
"We understand that Tambor fled the planet as Padawan Tano infiltrated the base. She was unable to apprehend him." Windu said. Anakin tensed slightly.
"Unfortunate I understand." Obi-Wan continued. "But General Aayla Secura has reported Separatist involvement on the planet of Felucia. There is another chance to capture Tambor."
"True enough. But we don't have the evidence to conclude that Tambor is on Felucia." From behind the table, Master Yoda appeared and moved about the room.
"Catch him, we will, but with time and patience." He spoke. Windu's gaze dropped for a moment in thought. Obi-Wan merely nodded.
"That is all I have for you." Windu finally said. "I need to return to my mission. May the force be with you." He said to all.
"May the force be with you as well." Obi-Wan said. After that, the image faded out and the room was in momentary darkness before the side lights around the room kicked on.
"Well thank you for inviting me to this twenty second chat." Anakin said to Obi-Wan. He turned to leave.
"Not yet finished, we are." Master Yoda spoke up. Skywalker froze and turned in place.
"There is something else?" Obi-Wan asked, sounding surprised.
"A distress signal, reached us it has. From the unknown regions beyond the outer rim it is." The small Jedi master touched a few buttons on the console and the image of the galaxy lit up. The side lights flicked off so they would not obstruct the view. The hologram automatically honed in to a very distant arm of the galaxy. The nearest planet near the dot was called Dosuun, which was one mega parsec away.
"A distress signal that far off?" Obi-Wan exclaimed, very surprised to see this.
"Who's even out there that we know of? Surely neither the Republic nor Separatists have been there." Anakin added. Yoda shook his head slowly.
"Around the area, we have been in the past. Someone who knows us, there must be. Investigate we must." He kept his eyes on the map, the little blue dot blinking at the source of the distress signal. Yoda closed down the map after a few more seconds.
"Who do you have in mind to send?" Anakin asked.
"It's so odd that we would receive a signal from that far off." Obi-Wan said mainly to himself, his fingers stroking his beard thoughtfully.
"You two, I will send. Your padawan as well, and a very small group of clones. This is who you will take. Set out immediately you shall, but keep this mission secret you must." Yoda stated. Obi-Wan's fingers curled and his knuckles pressed into his chin.
"How much time will this mission take? We cannot fly so far out of reach of the Republic should either of us need assistance." He asked in concerned tone.
"We'll need a fast ship then." Anakin insisted.
"The fastest ships are one person starships, Anakin, we'll need something to fit all of us."
"What about the Twilight?" Obi-Wan gave a brief chuckle.
"Your freighter?"
"Hey it's fast! After all the upgrades I've given to it it's just as good as a starship."
"If we jump far enough into hyperspace we needn't worry." Yoda waved a hand patiently, their small bickering vexing him.
"Your ship, Skywalker, will do. Set out now you must, if the mission is to be completed in time." He spoke, looking up at the both of them. Obi-Wan nodded.
"Very well. We'll head back up to the Resolute, gather who we need and set out."
"What about Admiral Yularen?" Anakin asked. "Should we tell him anything or give him command of the Resolute until further notice and tell him it's 'Jedi Business'?"
"I'm sure you'll come up with something." Kenobi said, beginning to walk out. Skywalker followed him. Behind them, Yoda trailed along as well.
"Skywalker and Kenobi." He said. The two paused outside the room. Yoda hobbled out to meet them. He outstretched his hand to Kenobi.
"Take this. The coordinates to your location, it is."
"Thank you Master Yoda. We'll inform you of whatever we discover here as soon as possible." The three nodded farewells for the moment and parted for the second time. Yoda made for one of the spires as the other Jedi headed for the Temple entrance, preparing to return to the Resolute, uncertain of what their mysterious mission entailed.
Resolute
1700 hours
Ahsoka clutched the rather stiff pillow over her head as she lay curled up on the bed. After she parted ways with Motormouth, she sat awake in her bed for what seemed like hours until her eyelids grew so heavy she couldn't bear to keep them open any longer and fell deeply, dreamlessly asleep. At one point she could've sworn she heard someone knock on her door. She was vaguely aware that it might have been Rex asking for her, but she wasn't positive it was real or part of her exhausted imagination. She'd ask and apologize later when she saw him.
The knee high boots she wore were still on her feet. She hadn't even taken them off. The lightsaber was still resting on the bed side table undisturbed, much to her relief. Even though she doubted a trip to the mess would result in the need to have it with her. Throwing the pillow off her face, she groggily moved to sit up. The Togruta was certainly more attentive. A few mere hours of sleep were better than none. She lazily moved to drop her legs to the ground to stand up. Her hand wiped over her still drowsy face. The battle of Ryloth offered little sleep and comfort to her, as well as to her troops.
The padawan had departed her quarters after a few minutes to go supervise the bridge. No doubt her masters would be there. And perhaps she could ask Rex what he needed from her. The steel corridors of the Resolute were brightly lit and several shinies made their way around the corners in even numbers, and never alone. They all donned their helmets, ready to answer the call of duty at any given moment. A few even gave her the formal 'sir' to address her as they passed. Ahsoka learned to just nod sternly at them from Rex so that she would not have to speak each time. Her feet gently padded along the floor as she prepared to click the turbolift to bring her to the bridge. Abruptly, her comlink went off giving her a fright. She reached for it to answer.
"Ahsoka, it's me." Anakin Skywalker's voice came clear over the line. "Meet me in the hangars."
"Yes master, I'll be right there." She replied. The line went dead. Why is he in the hangars? She thought suspiciously. Nonetheless, she spun around to face the opposite way and began to trek to the hangars. Only there would she receive her answer.
The hangars were abandoned and quite silent, very unusual under any circumstance really. Many ships had already been taken care of and hooked up to their spiraling cords above. Half of the hangar area was dark; the other half brightly lit. The only occurring activity was by the Twilight. From across the large area, she could see what looked like Jesse and Kix removing some crates from the freighter and then bringing others back on. Near the head of the ship, Obi-Wan was speaking to Commander Cody, who stood without his helmet. For a quick moment, she thought that Cody looked apprehensive, but she doubted it. She was probably just on edge.
"Morning commander!" Jesse called out amiably to her.
"Morning Jesse, Kix." She acknowledged. "Where's Skywalker?" The moment she asked, Anakin came down the ramp leading into the Twilight.
"Hey Snips. You feeling all right?" he approached her. Under a rather low whisper, he said, "I knocked on the door to your quarters earlier but you didn't answer." Ahsoka's eyes looked into his.
"That was you? I'm sorry master, I was sleeping. Ryloth really took the energy out of me." He nodded.
"I know. It was a tough mission for sure." His gaze looked distant and oddly distracted.
"So what's going on? Why did you have me come here?" Jesse and Kix disappeared into the ship and did not come out. Anakin looked out of the hangars and gazed at the stars.
"Master Yoda, received a distress signal from a very, very distant planet. Whoever it was definitely knows the Jedi Temple and the Republic. They knew the coordinates exactly." Ahsoka's eyes widened.
"Distress signal? What do we know about it?"
"Not much. We know the relative location of the planet. We've been dispatched to investigate it. Maybe it's a Republic spy in trouble."
"I understand. Where is the planet again?" Ahsoka responded.
"Wild Space. The closest identifiable planet is called Dosuun." Obi-Wan and Cody came towards them, leaving Anakin just enough time to finish his sentence.
"Cody has informed me that the last few missions near that location have resulted in the disappearance of clones." Obi-Wan said. Anakin's eyes shot right to Cody in peaked interest.
"Clones disappearing? How? Like vanish?"
"Sort of. There was a report on the planet of Alzoc III from General Unduli that two clones in her squad had vanished under mysterious circumstances. No one has heard from them since and we cannot locate them by any means." Cody said. Ahsoka noted how tight his shoulders were. If he was relaxed, they would droop lower. So he is nervous. She thought.
"What were their names and numbers?" Anakin inquired.
"CT-2382 who was Bolt and CT-6747 who was Reed." Cody answered. Obi-Wan nodded, as if he'd already heard the names.
"Well, let's not waste any time. We need to be rather swift with this mission before the rest of the order realizes were gone." Anakin smirked and the four stepped up the ramp into the Twilight.
Ahsoka entered the freighter to see Jesse, Kix, Rex, Motormouth, Echo and Fives.
"Big company for a supposedly secret mission." She said as Anakin slid past her to the cockpit.
"We wanted the best clones for this one." He said with a smile.
"In and out, right general?" Fives spoke up.
"In and out. Unless we discover a problematic situation." Obi-Wan stood in the cockpit as Ahsoka moved to take the co-pilot seat.
"We'll have to see when we get there. At the moment, we have no idea what we're getting ourselves into." Anakin powered up the ship with a couple flips of the switches. The freighter roared to life and idled, waiting to take off. The clones sat just outside of the cockpit, waiting patiently until the touched down to commence their peculiar mission. Ahsoka felt a shiver run down her arms and her sides. In the back of her mind, her nightmare from earlier gently surfaced from the ocean of her thoughts before plunging back down into the depths. She pushed it further down and bit her lip. It was just a dream. I find it quite unlikely that'd I'd ever find myself in a place like that.