CHAPTER NINE: DAWN OF A NEW ENEMIE


A kilometers deep fall through the moist clouds of Kashyyyk followed.

It was nearly a free fall, if not for the ship's ability to pull up and steer, fog spread over the eta-2 Actis-class interceptor of Ahsoka Tano.

The droid in its astromech socket beeped sort and annoyed, very much like a whine, R2-D2 was a droid with lots of human behavior.

"Yes Artoo, I'll get you dried as soon as I get the chance," Ahsoka replied, allowing herself a smile as the droid tried to shake the damp-caused drops off with a wild shake of its dome.

"General,".

"Yes, Oddball?".

"Vultures appear to be following us," the voice was as calm and relaxed as if he were taking a nap, even though the Vulture droids were raining around them.

"They just don't know when to give up do they?" Ahsoka sighed "Very well, V-wings, break out of formation and engage the Vultures, one-seventies, stay with the gunships, they have to get through,".

"Yes, Sir,".

Ahsoka nudged the joystick aside and the starfighter rolled aside, she released the throttle and the gunships shot past her.

Vultures appeared behind her, the thick cloud made it difficult to spot them.

"General, bogeys on your six," Tagger warned her.

"I see them, Artoo?" a bunch of I'm-on-it whistles and beeps answered.

The ship accelerated and disappeared in the clouds.

After a quick and graceful loop she returned, lasers blasting, from the clouds, end of the Vultures.

In mere seconds, the silent white clouds had become a free-fire zone, V-wings roaming the skies in search for Vulture droids, and Vulture droids in search for V-wings.

The V-wings had a definite advantage, they were not only nimble and lightning fast, they were also grey, and disappeared easily in the white clouds over the grey sky, while the dark-blue Vultures were easily spotted.

Minutes later, the V-wings formed up behind Ahsoka's starfighter.

"Scanners are clear, Sir,".

"Let's join the gunships then,".

"Wait, my scanners are picking up a fighter, it's-AAH!".

Behind her starfighter, over half of the V-wing squadron disappeared in blooms of fire and flaring plasma bolts.

The Force yelled her a warning.

Ahsoka yanked the yoke to the side and the joystick forward, quickly she turned the ship around while the V-wing squadron's formation broke apart.

A Belbullab-22 starfighter pierced the sky right in front of her, for a minute she thought it was Grievous' Soulless One that had destroyed the squadron, well, she was right, but it wasn't Grievous piloting it.

The fighter had already destroyed half of the remaining V-wings by the time Ahsoka could react.

"Artoo, get a lock on that ship,".

She twisted the throttle and started chasing the fighter.

Quickly, she realized the pilot was not a droid, or a normal person, it was a Force sensitive, whatever Ahsoka tried, she could not get the fighter in her crosshair.

The chase was on, and it went into a near freefall towards the planet, a vertical way down.

They were out of the clouds in an instant, Below them was now a forest of kilometer high Wroshyr trees and vast oceans, sand beaches and more.

About five meters above the water the Soulless One pulled up, so did Ahsoka, there was a short pause in the Soulless One's wicked maneuvering, Ahsoka tried a few shots.

Miss-miss-miss.

"Shoot!" Artoo made an agreeing noise and shot at the fighter himself, again the fighter evaded them.

"Get, in, my, crosshair," Ahsoka said with her eyes closed of concentration, they had suddenly raced over the beach and entered a forest of brown trunks.

The Force was guiding both their movements, nudging yokes and joysticks aside, twisting throttles and pulling the triggers.

The starfighters rolled in perfect equal rolls aside, all shots missed barely, and the fighters missed a threesome trees with millimeters to spare, the battle ground was certainly not meant for starfighters.

Ahsoka's heart was pumping in her throat, the dazzling maneuvers were almost out of Anakin's league, let alone Ahsoka.

The thrusters whined and blasted a blue light, the interceptor gained steadily on the Soulless One.

Then, all of the sudden, the fighter was gone, it had fled somewhere, Ahsoka couldn't sense it any more.

She pulled up and left the forest.

"Tagger?".

"I copy, Sir," the clone voice said.

"How many men did we lose?" All of them, she suspected.

"We lost Hunter Squadron and one ARC one-seventy,".

"I'm coming up on your position, have the gunships landed at the target zone?" she asked regretful, as she always was when she lost clones of her squadron.

"You did a good job distracting those Vultures, Sir, all of them made it,".

"But at what cost…".

"Don't worry about it, Sir, we clones are prepared to do our duty, they died to safe the Republic,".

Oh, Ahsoka thought, it's not just that, but I can't blame you, you just don't know any different…

"I'll see you on the ground Tagger,".


The morning fog hovering above the ground had something to it, it felt refreshing, and very cold.

"Hey Ahsoka!".

A girl waved enthusiastically and walked towards her, it was Etain Tur-Mukan, her second best friend.

"Hey Etain, nice to see you," she put up a big smile.


Jayce Adar jumped up and batted Obi-Wan Kenobi's blue lightsaber to the side, leaving a clear opening for him.

-slash-

Obi-Wan smiled and walked to the side of the mat.

A whir of forest-green flashes surrounded Jayce, he slipped back to Soresu and blocked the attacks, a green bundle of nearly pure Force-guided Yoda flipped over his head, Jayce turned around and parried a short lightsaber blade.

"Much learned, you already have, but concentrate on the Force, you must more," Yoda advised.

They had been training for nearly two weeks now, with only short sleep and meditation sessions.

And Jayce had grown, and learned, considerably, the greatest Masters of the Order now referred to him as The Master of Soresu and Djem So, capable of holding Yoda at bay, without as much as moving more than a meter in an hour.

Correct, an hour.

Jayce had been dueling Yoda and Obi-Wan at the same time for exactly ninety minutes now, and exhaustion was barely starting to kick in, he'd already gotten Obi-Wan out of the race.

"Feel, let the Force control your actions, let go,".

It was like something in Jayce had been unlocked, the battle became much easier now, he glided through it, he cut through the battle like a blade now.

Jayce wasn't such a Force user like Yoda, Mace windu or Kit Fisto, he relied on it, yes, but he didn't use the Force for Force pushes and telekinesis.

He was a blade Master, maybe not as skilled with the Force, but definitely lethal with a lightsaber.

And he was winning against two of the Orders greatest Masters at the same time.

Yoda parried his Djem So attack and jumped up, aiming an attack at Jayce's head, block, Jayce batted Yoda's saber away and forced a whir of slashes and cuts at Yoda, Yoda easily, well, easily, he kept the attacks at bay.

Jayce aimed a cut a Yoda's middle and slashed, he hit, but he also felt a burn on his chest.

Yoda's lightsaber was pressed against his chest and his own lightsaber had hit the side of Yoda's middle, they deactivated their lightsabers and bowed respectfully.

"An excellent battle, fought you have, Jayce Adar,".

"Thanks to your training, Masters," Jayce returned to Cin Drallig, Obi-Wan and Yoda.

"Perhaps you are too humble, you fought that battle yourself, we, did not help you," Cin Drallig said with a rare smile, Jayce was the most promising student, together with Ahsoka Tano, after Anakin Skywalker.

"Master Drallig is right, you've out-battled two of our Orders greatest Masters and come to an even with Master Yoda,".

"All because of your training," Jayce replied, strangely uncomfortable with the Masters' praising.

"Two weeks of training can not make a Jedi learn this much,".

"It's experience, something you have more than us," that was true, he did have more experience, after all, he was living twice.

Except for Yoda, but the Force had chosen him, and Ahsoka and Padméto survive, so there had to be a reason, maybe it was because he was good with a lightsaber.

"No young Adar, not good, a Master you equal, even top, with a lightsaber,".

"Being humble, a good thing it is, but denying, worse it can make," Yoda explained.

"Yes, Master," Jayce bowed his head in respect.

Cin Drallig, Yoda and Obi-Wan ignited their sabers again.

"Time for round two," Mace Windu announced from the sideline.

As with his battle with Obi-Wan before, the sidelines were filled with spectators, padawans and Masters alike, all also silently questioning why Jayce got so over-intensive training.

Jayce activated his own duel lightsaber and a blue shaft of light rose up.

The dance of sabers began again.


Ahsoka and Etain walked to two wookiees and bowed.

"Tarfful, Chewbacca, this is Ahsoka Tano, she's here to bring us reinforcements," Etain gave Ahsoka a friendly smile.

The wookiee with braids and armor roared, but it was friendly, it was a greeting, then the other wookiee, with only a belt of ammo crossing from his shoulder to his hip, Chewbacca offered her a paw.

Ahsoka took it.

"Nice to meet you," her hand hurt badly when she got it back, literally, Chewbacca had nearly crushed her hand, he hadn't done it on purpose, but it hurt.

The wookiees replied with a series of growl, howl and grunts, which Etain seemed to understand surprisingly well.

"They thank you for bringing supplies to their people and helping defend them, they also say, that if you ever need anything, you can come to them," Etain translated.

"Thank you," Ahsoka said to them.

Chewbacca and Tarfful walked away, Etain turned to her.

"Something weird has happened," she started.

"What's wrong?" Etain was feeling strangely uncomfortable, Ahsoka could feel it.

"Recently, many patrols on the levels four and three have gone missing," Etain continued.

"Maybe the wildlife has taken them?".

"No, the clones had enough strength to be safe from the wildlife, actually, two of the missing patrols are commando squads,".

"Then it won't be droids either,".

"Omega and Delta squad have gone missing," Etain stood on the verge of collapsing.

"But those are one of the- no, they are our best squads!" Ahsoka said.

"Darman, he may have died," now Etain was crying.

Oh boy…

"Relax, they're commandos, they'll live it through to the end," Ahsoka said trying to comfort her, but Etain didn't stop crying.

"I can't sense him anymore, what if he's dead?" she cried out.

"Is there any chance you like-".

"I love him,".

Ahsoka sighed not as surprised as she thought she would be.

This… might be a problem…


AN: Yay for epic chapter names!

Yes, Jayce beat Yoda, Cin Drallig and Obi-Wan in a one against three battle, but here's the catch, Force push, Telekinesis, healing, that's not really his thing, more Ahsoka's, so that's why.

Curious about the Soulless One's pilot, you'll find out soon…

Please Review and Enjoy!