AUTHOR NOTES: Thanks again for the reviews! I've actually got a bit of time on this edit so I can do some acknowledgements.
Torli: Update faster? Once a week is too slow, hmmm? I don't know. I have a feeling you all would be clamoring for speed even if I updated every day. evil grin At least this way the story remains well edited and it gives me time to shore up any plot holes I keep finding along the way.
L: Obi is my favorite character so he will always be portrayed with the dignity and respect he deserves. I'm a consummate perfectionist when it comes to characterizations so hopefully even my not so favorite ones *cough Anakin* gets a little polish and stays true to what he was meant to be.
Mo Angel: Jedi-Killer…ooh good name for the poison! I still haven't come up with a satisfactory name for it. Any other suggestions?
Pronker: What a great honor! Please feel free to recommend it on LiveJournal or any where else. Also, if anyone wants to host it on their individual sites, that's fine, just ask me first.
ObiBettina: Your fears are unfounded…or are they? We all have our dark side.
Kimsa Ki-Lurria: Your wish is my command finally. Individual responses. Though I doubt I'll be able to do it every time. As for the story twist, I'm glad I managed to do something original. It's hard to do given the amount of material out there. And I agree 100% about what Obi-wan means to Anakin. Everyone finds rules and regulations annoying coming from a parental figure, but it doesn't mean you love them any less.
Yesac: I'm humbled by such a wonderful review. Thank you!
Tohva98, Charie, StarchaserD: The characters' banter and their friendship as equals is one of the few things in the movieverse I liked and I wanted to bring that to a higher level here. I'm glad it's working. They do a great job of it in the cartoon and it really inspired me.
Anakin T. Skywalker: Now THAT is a great compliment. Thank you!
Caz, Silver-ShadowSpark, Nimoth4th, Yeneffer: Stay tuned for more action!
Also thanks to all who watched the vid and left comments there. It's very much appreciated!
Now back to our regularly scheduled Fanfic update!
DISCLAIMER: See Chapter One
STAR WARS: THE CLONE WARS
Episode 1A
Death's Shade
Chapter Seven
Assault Force
They were gathered around the tactical display aboard Defender. It showed a space station hanging in the dead of space. Master Windu and Commander Cody and Captain Lock stood on opposing sides of the tactical table. Barriss Offee graced a corner of the room, keeping out of the way of the strategists. Mace gestured at the display.
"The station is covered by at least three squadrons of droid ships. There is a cruiser approaching on long range scanner. We won't have much time before we will have to contend with it. While our fighters engage the enemy ships, we intend to land a boarding party on that station led by General Skywalker. Your objective: find that antidote and destroy the station. I want nothing left of it."
"Yes, sir!" Cody saluted and departed to make ready his squad.
"We have about an hour before that cruiser arrives," Mace reminded Anakin.
"More than enough time, Master Windu. I don't intend to waste time Obi-wan doesn't have."
"Go quickly," Barriss urged Anakin. "Your Master has very little time left, only hours now and that is purely estimation. Any later and he will be beyond my help, antidote or no."
Anakin's fists clenched and bowed to the Healer. "I will."
"Then may the Force be with you," she said.
***
Anakin and Lock strode down the corridor aiming for the hanger. In truth Anakin strode, Lock struggled to keep pace with his long determined stride. Two steps behind him, he voiced his concerns.
"It's going to be blaster hell in there, sir."
Anakin didn't respond.
"There's a spare suit of armor on the ship if you want it. You know, just in case."
Still no response.
"Those droid ships around the base are going to slow us down." It wasn't just the cruiser bearing down on them but General Kenobi's rapid decline that worried Lock. They were running out of time.
"No, they won't," Anakin assured him, his words like ice.
"If there's even half the number of droids inside as outside, we'll waste valuable time fighting through them."
There was logic to his reasoning. Lock's gift was tactics, but at the moment Anakin envisioned obliterating every last thing that stood in his way. The droids would not last five minutes between him and his objective.
"We're not even sure of our direction once inside. We know what to look for but not where," Lock continued pressing his point.
"That's what we're bringing R2 for. He'll access the data." The time factor was weighing on the General as well.
He knew the young General all too well; he sometimes preferred to punch his way through. If there was one thing he learned from General Kenobi was that subtlety brought faster results.
"I was just thinking that maybe the 501st could occupy the droids while Ghost Squadron heads through the air shafts straight to where R2 tells us. They can handle those clankers easy."
Anakin grinned back at him, a feral glint in his eye. "Cody will thank you for that privilege."
Lock's own smile broadened. "I know."
The gunships were waiting for them in the hanger, Ghost Squadron already in the belly of the first one, locked and loaded. R2 whistled from his alcove in the corner beside Commander Cody.
"Gentlemen, Captain Lock has your battle plan."
All eyes turned to him and the captain smiled.
***
Blaster fire sounded all around them as the gunship veered wildly one direction and then the other. Everyone held tight to the overhead rigging, struggling for balance. Anakin used the Force to steady everyone and kept his mind focused on the battle raging outside. The droid ships were slowly giving ground as the lead gunships cleared a path for them straight to the station.
They came in full throttle, the bottom of the ship skidding a bit as it touched down, taking out the first two rows of droids lined up in the hanger. In the wake of that confusion, the ship's bay doors opened and Ghost Squadron poured out, blasters firing.
R2 headed straight for a data port as Anakin cleared their way through a squad of droids nearest an airshaft to their right. Lock and five troopers went with them as Cody and the rest of the squad occupied the droids in the hanger. Two more gunships were landing just behind them with the rest of the 501st.
Anakin didn't wait for R2 but immediately disappeared into the airshaft, the rest of his team on his tail. Within moments, R2 relayed the information they needed.
"Deck 8, Section 42, Room 34AB. Let's move it!" Anakin shouted.
They swiftly ascended the shaft. R2 had been instructed what to look for. Droids were methodical in their inventories. Shipping manifests and daily duties meticulously documented. Most of it was boring, droid related and meaningless. There was only one location which was considered top security, where the transmission was sent once intercepted. That was their destination.
Anakin checked the time internally again. It had taken thirty-nine minutes just to get in the station. Time was slipping away too fast. They had to move quicker and throw caution to the wind.
The airshaft deposited them on a deck with only a handful of droids that were swiftly and mercilessly destroyed by Anakin's swinging blade and well aimed blasters.
Waxer held a tracker in his hand and pointed to the right. "That way, Sir! Twenty-two meters."
They took off at a run.
* * *
The squad skid to a halt at their destination. A quick scan of the room showed it to be empty. Two clones stood guard at the door while the rest started searching. Lock ran to a terminal and started accessing computer records. What he found made his blood run cold. Kenobi was designated as Subject Alpha and the statistical data stored indicated the harsh facts: failing organs, muscle degradation, impaired brain function, all with one final diagnosis. Death. There was even an estimated time listed, much shorter than the healers had thought. Less than an hour. He related this to Anakin.
"Download the data," the Jedi commanded.
It sounded cold, but he knew it was necessary. A part of him thought maybe General Skywalker had missed the implication. "It says within the hour, General. We aren't going to make it back in time."
Skywalker's face was made of stone. "I know," he said, his teeth clenched tight, the only indication that the mask was on the verge of cracking.
Even if the data they brought back had the answer, a formula for an antidote, the healers couldn't manufacturer it in time. Not to save General Kenobi, but at least it would safeguard the rest of the Jedi. But the thought still made Lock ill. He searched compartments almost ruthlessly. His anger was focused on doing something.
"I'll send this to R2, maybe he can relay it to Defender." That was of course if the signals weren't being jammed as was wont to happen in firefights. And Lock knew one was still raging outside in space.
He wasn't sure what else Skywalker was looking for so frantically. Then it dawned on him. Maybe the bastards had the antidote made already. It could be here on the station. He flung himself into the search as well.
There were numerous cabinets and compartments holding very little that was recognizable to Lock. Then suddenly one compartment refused to budge.
"I have something locked here!" he exclaimed.
Skywalker was at his side in an instant. "Stand back."
He had barely slipped aside when the General's blade cut through the hinges, the smell of arid burning durasteel filling his nostrils. The compartment door fell open.
Skywalker was quickly rifling through the contents. There were odd containers, all numbered, tons of data chips, but nothing immediately identifiable as an antidote.
"We're taking it all," he snarled, frustrated as nothing was found that would help shave off the precious minutes ticking past. They had done everything they could here; all that they could carry was packed into bags and slung over the shoulders of the clones.
Lock was about to head for the door when he noticed the General staring again at the compartment. Did we miss something?
The anger faded from Skywalker's face and knelt again by the opening pushing the unhinged door further aside. "Wait." His hand darted back in and retrieved a clear case no bigger than his palm.
"What is that?" Lock asked leaning forward.
There was an object inside the case. It looked like a ring of some sort. Nothing ornate, but black as night and made of a single band save for one large knob.
That was odd. Who hides jewelry in a laboratory? "A bit gaudy for a droid," the Captain muttered.
General Skywalker was staring intently at it, as if trying to figure out what it was. Then his eyes widened.
"Do you recognize it?" Lock asked.
Skywalker didn't answer but opened the case and pulled out the ring.
"Careful," he warned. Something about the ring unnerved Lock. His short yellow mohawk was tingling, a sure caveat that it was dangerous.
"I know what this is," Skywalker said, his jaw muscles contracting.
Boil shouted from the door. "We've got company!"
The concord of rhythmic metal against metal sounded from down the hall. Sounded like a regiment was on its way.
"Time to go," announced Skywalker. They skidded out in the hallway, and then abruptly the General spun about.
Ventress was coming at them ahead of the marching droids. She pulled up in annoyance. "Skywalker!" Her gaze took in the packs on the backs of the clones and she scowled deeper. "Thievery is so low for a Jedi to stoop," she murmured.
General Skywalker didn't bother bandying words with the assassin. "You know what we're here for, Ventress. And I think we have all that we need."
"Do you?" she smiled through blackened lips. "You believe the antidote for your precious Obi-wan was in that room?"
"So there is an antidote," the Jedi smirked back.
"Perhaps," she purred. Then her eyes darkened. "Or perhaps I wish to give you false hope so your pain will be that much sweeter when you watch as your Master dies gasping."
Skywalker's rage overwhelmed him, lending him power and destruction. He lunged at her, his saber igniting.
Ventress barely had time to get her blades up in a defensive position as the General slammed his weapon down on hers. It drove her to her knees. The crackle of the connected blades resounded everywhere, the light of the saber's glow must have practically blinded Ventress they were so close to her face. Then she rose to her feet, shoving the Jedi back.
Ventress deflected a return swipe and then spun her own blades at Skywalker's head. "Your Master is dead," she snarled at him in the breathing room she had created. "His time has long since run out. He is nothing now but a cold corpse and I own the honor of his death."
Skywalker's face turned as red as Ventress' twin sabers. With a howl that resounded against the steel walls, his lightsaber swung at her, so fast Lock could barely track the movement. It blurred in a blaze of blue light.
"General!" Lock yelled, trying to make Skywalker see reason. They had another objective. Master Kenobi needed them to get back. "We need to leave! We have to get back to the ship!"
The droids bottlenecked behind Ventress, unsure what to do with their commander between them and their objective.
"Kill them!" she screamed at the idiotic machines.
They blindly opened fire in the hallway. Blaster fire and discharge smoke filled the confined space. The clones opened fire, aiming around the two warriors fighting in front of them, praying their General could deflect any random shot.
Skywalker continued to drive Ventress backwards into the mob of droids. His saber swings were slicing into the metal sentries as well leaving molten debris on the grating. Lock suddenly had a bad feeling. He had never seen the General so enraged. Jedi weren't like that. Master Kenobi, even in the heat of battle, never fought the way Skywalker was fighting. It was as if he had gone mad.
The droids shifted to the sides out of the way of the two relentless warriors.
"Carry out our objective," the General shouted back to the clones as he ran after Ventress down the hallway.
Lock balked for a moment, relieved that Skywalker still had some sense of self about him. He was still in command, though he still doubted they were doing the right thing in staying and fighting. Ventress was delaying them most likely on purpose. But he had to trust that the Jedi had a plan in mind and that pursuing Ventress was part of it.
Did Skywalker really believe General Kenobi was dead? Perhaps it was a Jedi thing. He had heard that Jedi could feel each other through some sort of telepathy. His own eyes burned at the thought that they had lost General Kenobi. But still he did his duty; he covered the clones' retreat. They had thermals to plant while Ghost Squad tried to bring the downloaded data and supplies back in time.
