Chapter 7
Palpatine sat staring out across the cityscape that filled the Coruscanti horizon. Night had just fallen, the remaining light from the sun illuminating one of the orbiting moons as it lingered near the horizon. Around him, signs of the recent duel between him and the late Jedi Master Windu were still scorched into the scarlet walls and floor of his office, although the window had been replaced some time earlier.
The door hissed as it allowed the black-robed figure into his office, its heavy boots thumping on the carpeted floor as it strode to the centre of the room. Palpatine smiled evilly as he turned his chair to face the figure, which now kneeled in respect towards him.
"I have a mission for you."
The hooded figure gave a single, slow nod.
"Go to the asteroid Polis Massa, there you will find Skywalker and Kenobi. Kill them. A woman is also with them, bring her and the wife of Skywalker to me."
"Yesss, my lord…"
The eerie whisper rippled with the taint of the Dark side of the Force, bringing a satisfied, but evil smile once more to Palpatine's lips.
"Now go."
The figure stood abruptly before striding out of the room as Palpatine turned back to the cityscape as the first stars could be seen in the night sky. Tapping on a panel on his chair, a holo-screen appeared beside him. In its centre, the security recording he had received from Polis Massa played on it, until it paused to show Kenobi and the unknown woman running out of a dagger-shaped ship his commander had reported to him.
Pressing another control on his panel, the image zoomed in to her pale face, her red eyes and long fangs clearly visible, as her white hair billowed behind her as she ran. Palpatine's eyes narrowed as he thought on this, something stirred in his mind, something he had read long ago in one of Darth Plagueis's journals.
Interesting, he thought, this may prove more of a test than I had thought.
Palpatine chuckled evilly as a smaller holo-screen showed the black figure striding up the boarding ramp of the black Sith Infiltrator stored in one of his hidden hangers.
Padme beamed as she held her daughter, Leia, in her arms. Next to her, Anakin stood holding Luke as Obi-wan looked down on the baby boy, a proud smile spread across his face as he held his old apprentice's shoulder in a brotherly gesture. Across the room from them, Talia stood next to Yoda as they both looked on at the happy family. Without turning to him, she spoke low enough for only his sensitive ears could hear her.
"The Force is unusually strong with him, to return from the dark side in the way that he did, it has never happened before to my knowledge."
"Correct you are, but action now this Sith lord would anticipate."
Yoda looked back over to the happy family.
"Gather our strength we must, if we are to face this evil again."
"In secret?"
Yoda nodded.
Talia closed her eyes and thought hard on her next decision. There was no doubt that this Sith lord had spies throughout the galaxy, and that their presence here would soon be discovered. If rebuilding the Jedi Order was among their priorities, then they could not reasonably do it while on the run. There was too much danger of being discovered if they all scattered and trained padawan learners while constantly journeying. To her, there was only one choice.
"There is one place where we can go, where we can train younglings and not be discovered."
Yoda looked up at her, noticing the frown on her brow as she opened her scarlet eyes again.
"Difficult for you to go back there, many memories you have of that place hmm?"
Talia slowly nodded.
"If it is to restore peace to the galaxy, then I am willing to take us there. It has been a long time, but it should be suitable for our needs."
Yoda smiled, he knew it was not easy for her, but she had granted them a light of hope in this dark time. He hobbled over to stand beside Obi-wan, earning their attention.
"If well enough Padme is to travel, we must leave soon or risk the Emperor finding us, we shall."
Padme nodded to her husband as Talia joined them.
"We should pack for a long journey, the newborns will require supplies that my ship doesn't carry, I also need to re-stock on a certain necessity so I will notify the medical teams."
Obi-wan managed to catch her as she turned for the door.
"Where exactly are we going, if the Emperor's forces cannot find us?"
Talia paused and turned her head back to them.
"Home."
With that, the doors closed behind her.
"Damaged vessel, you are clear to dock for repairs on landing bay 4, maintenance teams are on standby if you require further assistance, welcome to Polis Massa."
His hood still concealing his face, the figure deactivated the comm. transmission and guided the ship towards the hanger area. During the journey through hyperspace, he had taken the time to study the reports on each of his targets and the objectives of his mission. As he neared the landing bay, he recognised the white and chrome dagger-shaped ship from his reports, resting in several bays next to the one assigned to him. Skilfully landing his ship on the landing bay floor, he noted that there was a lack of personnel in this bay as he descended the boarding ramp. Discarding his hooded cloak, he pressed a small gem on his armoured glove and sunk into the shadows.
With the assistance of Bail, Talia had managed to gather enough supplies for the group, although her own supplies were considerably more difficult to gain. In the end, she managed to convince them to supply her with half of what she had asked for and was satisfied with that. It was likely that they had to stop along the way, in which case, the 200 litres of cloned blood she had acquired should manage to last her until then. She smiled as she remembered the look on the doctor's face as she placed the signed datapad before him, baffled to no end why she wanted so much and wasn't concerned what human-type it was. I'll never grow tired of that.
With the group now gathered and the newborns safe in their hover-cot, they made their way down to the docking area. Exiting the turbo-lift, they made their way across the hanger towards the Oni's Star. Obi-wan paused when he noticed the familiar shape of the ship parked a few bays along from them, dwarfed by the Tantive IV next to it. The ship echoed familiarity to him, from a memory long ago…
…on Naboo.
He drew his lightsaber hilt as his eyes scanned the hanger.
"Anakin! Get Padme and the children on the ship!"
The Force screamed a warning as a crate began to levitate from nearby and was hurled towards him. Back-flipping from harm's way, his blade ignited from his hilt as he landed. Yoda and Talia drew their blades and formed a defensive circle as Anakin dragged Padme with one hand and the hover-cot with the other towards the boarding ramp.
With a loud screech of stressed metal, one of the huge maintenance arms from the hanger roof dropped, the clawed hand impacting itself into the floor that was previously occupied by the trio of Jedi. Obi-wan, Yoda and Talia narrowly managed to leap out of the way, Obi-wan jumping over an empty crate to cover from the metal debris as it rained down. Talia and Yoda had remained in the open area, Yoda shifting the debris to fall around them as Talia continued to scan for threats.
As the dust and debris settled, Obi-wan noticed a control gantry that rose from the floor some distance away near the wall of the hanger with a worker feverishly operating the controls for the maintenance arms. As the arm slowly began to rise from the crater of debris, Obi-wan set off in a mad dash for the control gantry.
Talia whirled around when she heard Yoda cry out as he was sent hurtling into a stack of crates. Her eyes widened when she detected that the Force was not used, until a detonator was sent bouncing towards her. With no time to push it away from her, she formed a shield with the Force to absorb the brunt of the blast, which knocked her back across the hanger floor. She used her momentum to flip backwards off the floor to avoid another hurtling crate just in time to see Yoda straining with his arms extended above him, using the Force to stop the huge maintenance arm from crushing him.
Sensing Yoda's struggle, Obi-wan didn't have time to gain control over the arm, so he threw his lightsaber hilt into the control console in front of the worker, engulfing the worker in an explosion. Recalling his hilt to his hand, he turned and ran back towards the fight.
The maintenance arm continued to force down on Yoda as sweat beaded on his green brow, although he could feel the pressure ease off, the tremendous weight of it kept him fixed in position as he maintained his focus. Talia aimed her arms above the maintenance arm and at the metal hand of the arm. With a blast of vapour, silver blades trailed from her wrists to wrap around the supporting gantry and around the mechanical wrist. Talia flew up to the supporting gantry as that blade withdrew into her wrist, once perched on the gantry, she pulled the other blade with all the strength she could gather. Taking the momentary lack of weight bearing down on him as his cue, Yoda leaped aside and sent a message through the Force to Talia once he was clear.
Talia staggered back across the wide gantry as her blade released its hold on the arm and retracted back into her wrist, causing it to crash into the hanger floor one final time. After the thundering boom had rang out across the hanger, she heard the familiar crackle of energy from the Star's field emitters. Peering over the gantry's edge, she saw the Star lurch from the hanger floor with Anakin laying suspended at the controls. The ship rolled and turned as he struggled to control it, one of the front bladed-sections clipping an over-turned crate.
Her sensitive ears heard a shuffle behind her. Whirling around, she briefly saw a blur move towards her, until her face was impacted with a blurred boot. She was thrown backwards and over the edge of the gantry. She bounced off a tall storage rack before hitting the floor. Groaning as she attempted to pick herself up, she felt a strong kick connect to her ribs, sending her skidding to the base of the storage rack. Laying still, she looked back towards where she had landed and could see nothing but Obi-wan helping Yoda to his feet in the background. Concentrating, her feline eyes narrowed into thin slits as her vision darkened to show only red hue of her surroundings. A figure she could only see as pure black held still over where she had previously fell from the gantry.
Her broken ribs ached from where she had been kicked, but the pain slowly began to recede as she shakily began to pick herself up from the floor again. In the corner of her eye, the figure silently stalked over to her until she was crouched on the floor. She saw him rear his leg back to kick her again, but when he threw his leg forward, her hand quickly shot up and caught his boot. Surprised, he threw a fist towards her head, only to have it swatted away and returned with a kick to his own face. He staggered back holding his face as Talia quickly jumped up and sent a roundhouse kick to his chest, sending him flying back over the hanger floor to land with a loud thud between her and her fellow Jedi.
Get to the ship, she sent to Obi-wan and Yoda through the Force as they began to make their way towards their attacker. She saw the Star begin to steady itself on the landing bay as Anakin managed to gain control, its boarding ramp still lowered. Grasping her hilts in her hands, their blades sang with deadly scarlet energy as they formed above each crystal. The figure rose from the floor, the darkness around him crackling as his features formed from the pure darkness. She let her vision return to normal, to see him wearing a black armoured suit with a dark, orb-shaped helmet that reflected the surrounding hanger. Two angled slits in the helmet could be seen in place of his eyes and he held a lightsaber hilt in his right hand.
With a snap-hiss his orange blade ignited as he charged towards Talia, she twirled her hilts around her once in readiness as he began to unleash a barrage of quick, powerful strikes that left her concentrating on defending herself. Backing her towards a stack of nearby crates, he lunged at her but she managed to flip over his blade to land beyond his range. Extending his hand, lightening sprang from his palm, only to be absorbed by one of Talia's blades. Ceasing that attack, he gathered the Force around him to hurl whatever objects littered the area at her, only for her to dodge them as they came. Renewing his onslaught of quick strikes, he grew increasingly infuriated.
Obi-wan and Yoda climbed into their seats behind the cockpit, Obi-wan immediately readied the lower beam turret as Yoda turned his display to view the battle.
"Anakin, can you turn the ship so I can shoot him!"
Anakin's voice dripped of sarcasm over the comm.
"Oh I'm sorry Master, I forgot how easy this was."
Obi-wan rolled his eyes as Anakin lurched the ship around.
"A little more Anakin, just a little more."
Seeing her opening, Talia swatted his orange blade aside and kicked him in the ribs, the same side he had dealt her with. Groaning under his mask, he swung his blade in a wide arc in an attempt to remove her head. Talia ducked beneath it, twisting as she crouched, then jumped up and kicked him square between his shoulder blades. He slammed into the base of the storage rack as the Star's lower turret opened fire on the rack's supports, reducing them to a molten mess. The rack heaved and groaned, before beginning its decent down on top of them. They both turned and ran from it, but her starting lead allowed her to get a running jump as she managed to clear the rack before it slammed down on top of their attacker.
Talia stumbled up the boarding ramp, closing it behind her as Anakin shakily pulled the Star away from the hanger and into space. After switching with him, she guided the ship away from Polis Massa and through the asteroid field, before opening the portal into hyperspace.
