Chapter 10 "A Better Way To Fall"
A.N.
Me: "So sorry for the late update. Two words, High School. Looking into collages is a bitch too though. I'm so pumped that all these people like my stories so much, and not just this one. The feedback I've gotten all everything is amazing. Thanks so much."
Saieu: *butting in* "Can I talk now?"
Me: *sighs* "You kinda already are..."
Saieu: "Hello lovely little readers! How are you doing?"
*Leia walks in*
Leia: "Are we doing answers already?"
Me: "Not yet."
Saieu: *waves at the computer screen*
*Darksyde suddenly appears in Saieu's lap. The jedi shrieks and falls out of her chair. Darksyde simply floats overhead, laughing*
Darksyde: "You should seen your face!"
Saieu: "Ha ha, I'm sure it was hilarious."
Darksyde: "I've got another joke for you slimy little peasants."
Me: *groans* "Please no more dead babies."
Darksyde: "No dead babies, I promise." *clears thought* "So, Hitler and his generals are going over his plans for the Jews-"
*Luke walks in with Obi-Wan*
Luke:" What are Jews?"
Darksyde: "Shut up and let me tell the joke! Anyway, Hitler says "I'm going to kill 6 million Jews and a clown" One of his generals asks him why a clown. Hitler responds, "See, I told you no one cares about the Jews!" *laughs hysterically*
Luke: "I... don't get it..."
Me: "Don't worry, it's not from your galaxy anyway."
Leia: "So, answers?"
Me: "Yup." *reads email* "Thank you guest. I do my best to write the characters well. I'm glad you think they're portrayed correctly."
Saieu: "To ahsokatano191, nice name btw, thanks, the author worked hard on it. We did too."
Me: "You're muses."
Saieu: "Yeah. You point is? Being a muse is hard work!"
Me: *groans* "Next review, ElsaSkywalker, no, you didn't offend me in the least. I actually liked Frozen when I first saw it. But thanks to a little sister who's had me watch it well over twenty times, it got kinda old. Darksyde is like a dead fish, smelly and spoils everything. Just ignore her. She's bark and no bite (in the AN anyway. Can't say the same for the actual story)
Darksyde: "Hey!"
Saieu: "It's true."
Me: "Anyway, Elsa, never feel like I'm judging you or anything. And thanks for all your input and faithful reading. It means a lot."
Me: "Ah yes, scottusa1, Dooku had to die. But things will be changed later on. They're already changing, it's just not obvious yet."
Me: "AgentTucker, I always love reading your reviews. You manage to make me smile no matter how crappy of a day I've had, so thank you. Yes, dead baby jokes are eternal (Darksyde, pretend like you didn't hear that) I'll do my best not to have more black outs, but no promises!"
Me: "Anyway, that's the last of the reviews. I'll do my best to update 'The Angel and The Dragon' and 'Two Steps From Hell' soon, as well as my other fandom fics, (hhtyd yo!) Anyway, R&R!
Well see what you wanna see. You should see it all.
Well take what you want from me. You deserve it all.
Nine times out of ten, our hearts just get dissolved.
Well I want a better place or just a better way to fall.
But one time out of ten, everything is perfect for us all.
Well I want a better place or just a better way to fall.
-Modest Mouse 'Bukowski'
The group of four jedi and a politician were lead single file through the many halls of the warship, all leading up to the grand meeting with the famed General Grievous.
"Oh yes. General Kenobi, the Negotiator." Hissed the General in a mechanicalized voice, his original tone being long lost. "We've been waiting for you."
A battle droid handed the General the captives lightsabres, which Grievous snatched away.
"You're welcome." The droid mumbled.
"That wasn't much of a rescue." Grievous sneered.
Obi-Wan simple shrugged. "That depends upon your point of view."
The General instead turned his focus on the second famed jedi in the room. "And Anakin Skywalker... I was expecting someone with your reputation to be a little... older." The cyborg warmonger gave a cough, that somehow came off as equally threatening as his imposing figure.
Anakin smirked. "General Grievous, Supreme Commander of the Droid Armies..." He paused for effect. "You're shorter than I expected."
Grievous snarled. "Jedi scum..."
Obi-Wan turned to his companion and said exasperatedly, "Anakin, try not to upset him. We have a job to do."
"Your lightsabres will make a fine addition to my collection." Grievous taunted, placing the four lightsabres in his cloak.
Obi-Wan's gaze grew deadly. "Not this time. And this time you won't escape."
Anakin suddenly turned to his droid, "Artoo, now!"
Artoo shrieked and sparked, creating a rather impressive distraction by extending all his arms, shooting out electrical pulses, and bouncing around.
Anakin, hands still restrained with electrobonds, spun around, reached out and, using the Force, yanked his lightsabre out of the General's cape. He ignited it, and cut his bonds, then proceeded to spin around and cut Obi-Wan free.
The other jedi too took back their sabres and freed themselves.
"Crush them!" Grievous commanded his troops. "Make them suffer!"
And thus the battle began. The four jedi cut through the droids with ease. Their little marionette bodies melted like ice in the sun.
Grievous snarled, demanding the piloting droids to remain at their stations. From the side came two of Grievous's personally bodyguards, their purple glowing staffs buzzing like a swarm of insects.
The first one went after Obi-Wan, slicing and parring with ease. The droids weren't called Jedi Killers for no reason.
The droid managed to get a solid hit on Obi-Wan that sent him reeling. His adversary continued to advance. With a well times swing he managed to hack off the droids head. Seemingly victorious, Obi-Wan turned to find Grievous, but the hissing-whirl of a staff sent him once more into a battle stance. The droid remained functional even without a head. That certainly complicated things.
The second bodyguard was facing off against the twins. As the two had no prior experience against such creatures, their battle was proving even harder than the other's.
Only Anakin seemed to be fairing well. After quickly dispatching the droids holding the Chancellor captive he returned to the fray.
Finally finding a gap in the droid's defenses, Obi-Wan managed to slice the creature in two. It collapsed to the floor where it twitched a moment before falling still. One down, one to go.
Though, glancing up and catching sight of the twins, Obi-Wan realized the number just dropped once more.
A sudden explosion rocks the entire ship, causing most of its occupants to fall, or at the least trip.
"Sir, we are falling out of orbit." Came the nemodian pilot's panicked voice. "All aft control cells are dead."
The General growled. "Stay on course... Don't bother with them. Keep the ship in orbit."
Regaining their footing, the four force users once more leapt into battle. Together, Anakin and Obi-Wan work like a well oiled death machine to destroy the remaining battle droids along with the many metallic pilots. Luke and Leia too helped in ridding the bridge of adversaries.
Soon there were few left but a handful of living pilots and the half-alive General.
Obi-Wan jumped over a council to land right in front of the cyborg. Anakin took position behind Grievous while Luke and Leia fell back to the sides to prevent escape.
Kicking up his bodyguard's dropped staff, Grievous lifted the weapon high and spat, "You lose, General Kenobi," before launching it at the thick windows.
The glass shattered, sending all air within the bridge out to the vacuum that was space, taking Grievous along with it.
From his wrist, he fired a strong cable to latch onto the side of the ship. Using his swinging trajectory, Grievous landed gracefully on the hull where he promptly climbed back into the ship and out of sight.
Within the bridge the heavy blast doors finally slammed shut, allowing those that managed to remain inside to release their death-grips on whatever they were tethered to.
They are only given a moment of rest when even more alarms began to siren. The ear shattering wail of the systems drowned out much else, but Palpatine's warning managed to get through the noise. "The hull is burning up!"
Threat of droids gone, Anakin quickly seated himself in the empty pilots chair and evaluates the situation. The prognosis isn't good.
Another warning beeped, along with a flashing light on the council. Anakin sighed. "All the escape pods have been launched."
Obi-Wan and the twins made their way to the controls and sat down as well.
"Grievous." Obi-Wan said, though it was unneeded. He turned to Anakin. "Can you fly a cruiser like this?"
"You mean, do I know how to land what's left of this thing?" Anakin shot back, looking a strange mix of confidant and concerned. He sighed once more. "Under the circumstances, I'd say the ability to pilot this thing is irrelevant." He glanced at the four humans around him. "Strap yourselves in."
The four humans did as he suggested and buckled in tight. Knowing Anakin's flying, they would need it. Next to their newly appointed pilot, Artoo plugged himself in to aid in the landing.
Luke watched the side monitors with sharp eyes. "Steady..." He mumbled. "Attitude... eighteen degrees." He relayed.
Artoo beeped.
"Pressure rising." Anakin muttered. "We've got to slow this wreck down." He looked to Luke, somehow sense another able pilot in the boy. "Open all hatches, extend all flaps, and drag fins."
Luke nodded and did as told. "Temp steady. Hatches open, flaps extended, drag fins..."
The massive ship suddenly shook violently, and became significantly less massive. The four sentients glanced among each other.
"We lost something." Anakin half joked, but his face remained etched with worry.
"Not to worry, we're still flying half the ship." Obi-Wan tried to amend. No one laughed.
"Now we're really picking up speed..." Anakin breathed. "I'm going to shift a few degrees and see if I can slow us down."
"Careful..." Luke warned. "We're heating up-twelve thousand... thirteen thousand..."
Anakin turned to Luke. "What's our speed?"
"Eight plus sixty-forty. Eight plus sixty-twenty." The numbers continued to rise. "Eight plus sixty. Temp ten thousand, nine thousand... we're in the atmosphere..."
Anakin turned to Artoo. "Grab that." He instructed, pointing to a controller. "Keep us level."
"Steady, steady." Obi-Wan muttered.
"Easy, Artoo." Anakin urged his droid. "Hang on, this may get a little rough. We lost our heat shields."
"Five thousand." Luke related. "Three thousand... two thousand." A monitor beeped. "Fireships on the left and the right."
"We'll take you in." Came the static voice of the pilot.
Obi-Wan pressed the comm. "Copy that. Landing strip's straight ahead."
Anakin winced as the heat continued to build. "We're coming in too hot."
"Easy-easy." Obi-Wan muttered.
The ship left a contrail as it streaked across the Coruscant skyline. The weary passengers held on for dear life as the ship shook and rattled toward an industrial landing platform.
with one of its wings, the warship managed to cut an observation tower in half, causing the building to shatter and collapse.
The warship landed heavily on its belly, the shriek of tearing metal was loud enough to make ears bleed. Piece after piece of its underside was ripped away and ground off. But at least it was slowing.
Ahead was a large landing platform in the industrial part of the city. Surrounding it was a flock of Emergency Fire Speeders. Five of said ships approached the slowing Hand and sprayed it down with foam to banish the fires raging on its metal body. The massive ship finally came to a rather painful and grotesque landing, but all had survived.
Obi-Wan sighed in relief, pushing his sweaty hair form his eyes. "Another happy landing."