Ahsoka was bored.

The men were also bored.

Barriss was fed up of keeping them all in line. Because for the past two days in hyperspace, the large gym had not been large enough to relieve the men of their seemingly endless energy, and had taken to running up and down the corridors between shifts.

Of course, it was to be expected – one full ships worth of men all trapped on a single slightly smaller star cruiser than they were used to was enough to drive anyone mad, the lack of room, the lack of peace.

The lack of any authority higher than herself, Ahsoka, Wolffe's commanding officer Sinker and the two admirals was, again, also irritating. Ahsoka was as bad as the men – encouraging them to do everything important in a hurry and then waste time play fighting in the gym, and then the admirals stayed on deck the entire time, not worrying about what was going on elsewhere.

Barriss smiled to herself. It was nice that they had a few days of... well, not peace, but relaxation, before such an important battle – they had deserved it.

But with the matter of an approaching battle, one that may well turn the tide of the war distracted her. It mulled on her mind, nagging, constantly pushing her as scenarios came up in her head, each worse than the last.

The surprise attack not working. Being ambushed in air. The squadrons being knocked out.

Losing the connection with the generals down below. Them being ambushed.

General Kenobi dying.
Anakin dying.
Everyone dying.

The trap being fake, with no droids at all – just an empty space whilst the droids gained power in another invaluable system.

Losing Ahsoka. Losing the ships. Losing all the men she had had barely any time to get to know, but still welcomed Barriss with welcoming arms.

So many things could go wrong. All at my expense.

Of course, the loss of life would be inevitable, but the men in the air will be her responsibility – despite the fact they are under Master Kenobi's order, they will look to her for Command. A job she has never done alone before.

And Ahsoka. What if she lost her? Would Barriss cope, alone, with the knowledge that she was too late to save one of her only true friends? Or what if Barriss herself died, leaving Ahsoka alone?

Ahsoka's Master was bad with grief, and it had led her down that path, too. Aboard the ship back from Geonosis, she wouldn't kill anyone, because the thought of hurting them and losing them was too strong to bear.

And then there was Rex.

Ahsoka really does need to sort things out with him, Barriss smirked to herself.

She stood up from her meditation pad in the chamber off of the main hanger and returned her hood to its normal position above her head.

The door closed with a gently hiss, and Barriss turned to go up to the bridge. They should have been at Skahtra'en a day ago, but it was important, Barriss decided, to slow down a little bit as an extra precaution to stop them being detected.

Not that she wanted a bit of free time or anything, because that is a very un-Jedi like thing to do.

The generals were already set up at a small moon on the south of the murky brown planet, waiting for the Negotiator to arrive so the plan could be put into action.

It would be, after all, a failure waiting to happen, if they had no support.

Barriss opened the blast door silently, slipping over behind the admiral to take a look over his shoulder.

In his hand was a holo. On the holo was an image of a large, ghostlike black figure.

The admiral snorted viciously and Barriss sneaked back out again.

It would not be a good idea to mess with Kruss. He was known as the most violent admiral in the GAAR, and Barriss had no wish whatsoever to find out if it was true.

He'd probably send me outside in an escape pod, with no air and no lightsaber if I dared contradict him.

She opened the door via the hand panel – it let off a loud hiss as well, and the admiral gave a small jump before looking daggers over at the Mirialan.

No, not good to contradict at all. Poor Master Kenobi, putting up with him all the time.

Admiral Kruss stood up tall and beckoned Barriss over –she calmly walked over, ignoring the stare that was trying to penetrate and distract her mind from present matters. Like those creatures that very vicious admiral was worried about.

That was all that radiated from him: Fear (and annoyance at their lateness, of course, but nowhere near as strong)

She stopped next to the holo table opposite the Admiral – he saluted then started to pace back and forth.

"We have a problem on our hands" he growled, "These beasts are going to murder us all in our sleep if we do not do anything about them,"

He slammed a hand onto the glowing blue screen; the picture flew back up and started at rotate.

Barriss tried to smooth over her calm look in a vague attempt at being confused. It appeared to work when the admiral stops and stretched the figure out.

"This is a relative of the Native Galateric Zhorr. We have no idea exactly what they behave like, but their autonomy is extremely like that of a Zhorr. Have you ever seen one?"

Barriss shook her head and looked at the beast, "No. But Master Windu came back from Dathomir a while back and had to stop on Galaterr to contact us. His Venator was attacked by those, I think; we saw it in the Holo. It ripped off the entire life support system and punctured the engines."

The admiral nodded.

"We suspect that these could be worse – nobody has had any experience or even encountered one of these Things before, but you can bet they will be brutal." He snapped.

Barriss furrowed her brow and touched her chin with a finger.

"We had better contact Master Kenobi. He's in charge of the ground assault, and someone could check the archives..."

"I've already requested that, but there is no information. We are heading entirely unprepared into unknown territory! The most we can do is call of the invasion, and send down scouts to get a feel of what weapons and armour we should use."

He started to pace around the control room, metal boots sending echoes ringing.

"Would you like me to fetch Ahsoka?" Barriss asked timidly. The admiral looked around and shook his head.

"She would only panic and make the situation worse. No one up here other than us should know about this,"

But if they don't know, they're going to be furious when they find out. Ahsoka will at least.

Barriss bit back a sigh and nodded, tracing the buttons of the holotable lightly. She was worried. Again.


Oh My God. Guys. I'm so sorry. So so so so sorry. I completely lost the plot of this, and got so distracted (by the Hunger Games) that I didn't update. The only excuse I have is... well, I don't really have one :L

Was anyone else disappointed by the last... 5 episodes of TCW? I know I was. Errrm, CLONE wars, not Dathomirs. And the return of Maul disappointed me as well. To be fair, I don't care about Ventress. Not going to lie. So yes, I was off put and lost the plot, possibly due to the lack of CLONES and JEDI and ACTION. The first two seasons were the best. End of story, goodbye.

Anyway, you may/may not get another update for a while, as I am taking part in a 24 Author, 24 Tribute story in the Hunger Games, called 'Blood Dreams'. I am Weave Tarroten, the amazingly awesome tribute from D8. Check it out!

I'm again, sorry for the very long update. But this might go on hiatus (Not permanently, I WILL finish this) for a while.

~Wolffe.