Chapter Ten

The blue hologram waved around as the shuttle bounced up and down rapidly, as it exited Ryloth's atmosphere and entered deep space. Matt, Kristy, Aayla, and the commandos all stood around Master Windu's hologram. "Where exactly are you all headed?"

"The tracking device places Blazer on Bespin."

"City in the clouds."

Windu nodded slowly. "Very well. However, I have no more clone reinforcements to provide and no more Jedi to spare. You all are on your own with this mission."

Aayla nodded. "We understand. We fully believe we are capable of taking him into custody this time. After all… unless he can fly without a ship, he won't be able to get away this time."

"Very well. Report back as soon as you capture him."

The hologram faded, leaving them all standing there in the dim light. A moment went by. "Okay. So… I'm going to get washed up and clean up my armor." Scorch said happily, now that they had gotten their armor back from the demolished Ryloth base.

The commandos parted ways and went to their quarters, and Matt turned and looked out the view port. Kristy watched him for a moment, before standing next to him, as Aayla left the room to report to the pilots.

The only sound was the humming from the lights. "Nice view." She said. Matt turned to her. "Yeah. It is." He gave her a smile. "Sorry we took so long to get there and rescue you guys." He blushed softly. Kristy shrugged. "Hey, we're still alive, right?"

He nodded slowly, and looked back out the view port. "Do you…" he hesitated for a moment. "Do you ever wonder what the others are up to? Lara, Rebecca, AJ…"

Kristy nodded her head slowly. "Yeah. I do. We're in a much bigger place now. It's not just simply where on earth are you now. It's where in the galaxy are you, and to be honest, that kind of scares me."

He cocked an eyebrow and smirked. "I thought you were a mean and deadly commando."

Kristy laughed and gave him a playful shove. "Very funny." Her smile faded slightly. "But really. We're in the middle of a galactic war."

"And we can stop that war too. Before it gets to it's climax."

"How?"

"We need to stop Palpatine and speak to Anakin."

"Skywalker? He's on the outer rim right now."

"Not now. We have to stop Blazer and Kate first, before we can move to the big game. But rest assure…" Suddenly he froze. "Matt? You okay?"

His eyes shifted to hers. "Don't you feel that?"

"Feel what?" Kristy replied, getting worried slightly. "It's that… feeling." Suddenly he shrugged. "Never mind. Let's go get em'."

"Matt." Kristy hissed, as he turned, starting to walk away. "Tell me what just happened."

He stopped and turned to her. "I… just have a bad feeling about this. That's all." He turned and started to walk away again, but stopped. "Just… be careful when we get there. Okay?"

Kristy nodded softly, as he left the room, leaving her still wondering what the hell was about to happen.

The plan was simple; Aayla and Matt would take personal Jedi Interception fighters, while the clones and Kristy take a gunship. Boss eyed the small group that was about to stage the most dangerous mission yet.

"There are anti-air turrets located here, here, and here. Close examination leads me and Niner to believe that we can skip the ships through this small gap between the turrets, and avoid detection. However…"

Boss trailed off, still scanning his eyes over the group, "we'll have to enter the gap at an exact moment, or else someone's gonna get hurt."

"Or worse." Niner commented. Boss nodded to him, and Niner took over. "The turrets are st on a scanning radius. And the radius for each one is set so that each turret is covered by the other, in a triangle set-up."

"So in order to avoid getting blasted to oblivion, we'll have to skirt the gap between Turrets one and two at exactly 0549 hours, when in which the turrets will be angled and unable to cover each other for this mere second."

"So we get a whole second to dodge these turrets?"

"Exactly."

"Cool." Scorch murmured. Kristy looked over at him, as did almost everyone else. He blushed softly, and placed his helmet on his head. "Right, sorry."

"Alright." Aayla said, stepping into the center of the room. "Let's get ready. We depart in twenty."

Matt felt a shiver roll down his back. Twenty minutes till death. How exciting.

The three ships lifted up and took off out through the docking hanger of the republic assault ship and accelerated into open space. "Setting coordinates for hyperspace." Kristy said, as her fingers flew over the controls of the ship.

"Copy that. Ready when you all are." Matt said from his Jedi Interceptor. He secured his headset and restraints, as he prepped for hyperspace. There was a whistle from his left. He look out and nodded to his astromech droid. "Alright R7. Just hold your womp rats. We're leaving in a second."

"We're a go." Kristy announced over the comms. "Here we go…" Scorch murmured, sitting up in his seat. Sev looked over at him. "I forgot how hyper hyperspace makes you."

"Better then being space sick."

"Punch it." Niner said.

In a matter of seconds, the ships blasted off, the stars blurring all around them as they became a speck among the dark void of space.

"We're approaching Cloud City."

"ETA?" Boss asked. Fixer looked at the console. "About five minutes."

There was a beeping sound on the console suddenly. Kristy frowned in confusion. Niner nodded to her. "What's up?" He asked.

"System scans are showing that the anti-air turrets are inactive."

"Are you sure?"

"Completely." Fi piped in, over Kristy's shoulder. "Turrets are disabled."

"Let the Jedi know." Fi nodded, and turned to the comms. Darman and Atin sat in their seats, frowning, along with everyone else. "Maybe it's a trap." Atin suggested, "He might have found the tracking device."

Niner nodded. "It's possible."

Kristy shook her head in disagreement. Darman cocked an eyebrow. Kristy sighed. "Blazer's way too stupid to think of looking about for a tracker. You saw his smirk as the ship took off. He'd done figured he was clean away."

"Alright. Copy that." Fi said. Everyone turned to him. He looked around. "Jedi said to approach with caution. Mission's still the same."

This time it was Sev's turn to sigh. "Damn. And I was looking forward to the gut busting landing."

Fi chuckled. "Relax Oh-Seven. I'm positive that This Sith has a few hundred Battle droids for you to shoot."

"Gee, thanks for the positive comments Fi. If your lucky you might just make it to Commando heaven yet." Sev replied, sarcasm heavy in his voice. Kristy just rolled her eyes.

The ships landed on the three platforms, with out incident. That fact make Niner paranoid. Nothing went without a hitch in their line of work, without some trick to it. There was probably a few dozen SBDs waiting around the corner for them. That'd be a trick. Sort of. But with Two Jedi, Eight commandos, and one Commando platoon leader, the droids would get one shot each, before they were cut down. If that.

Kristy lowered the boarding ramp and they all ran off the ship, taking up defensive positions around the three ships. Matt hit the eject button, and R7 popped out, landing neatly on the platform, before he got out of the ship, and Aayla walked calmly over to join the group.

"Alright. Keep your guard up." Boss murmured. He looked over at Niner and Niner looked over at him and they nodded. "Let the Jedi lead."

The group of commandos, lead by Kristy, formed up behind Matt and Aayla, as they started toward the main blast doors that led into the City in the clouds, their robes flowing around them, almost mystically. As they approached, there was a hiss as the doors suddenly started to open. The entire group froze, with the commandos and Kay aimed their blaster rifles at the doors. The Jedi stood calmly, waiting.

In the center of the doorway, stood a cloaked figure, with medium battle armor on… almost like… Mandalorian Armor. The figure looked up, and raised their hands, slowly pulling their cloak away from around their head…

The young female smiled at the group. "The Republic, right? You here for the Sith?"

Matt forced himself to keep his composure. Kristy on the other hand, lowered her blaster and shouted. "AJ! What the hell?" Kay pulled off her helmet, and walked over half way to AJ, who smiled even bigger. "Kristy! Hi."

"Well, it seems we've all gotten into what we were all meant to be doing…"

Matt cocked an eyebrow at AJ. "Yours being…?"

AJ grinned. "I'm an odd jobs kind of girl."

Fi examined her from head to toe. "Looks more like you're a bounty hunter."

"Fine, gees, call it what you like." AJ murmured. They all stood around for a moment, awkwardly. Aayla sighed and crossed her arms. "Okay, so, you said you had him in custody?" She asked AJ, referring to Blazer. AJ nodded proudly. "Sure do."

Aayla looked at AJ, as she stood there, grinning at Matt and Kristy. "So… can we take him back to Coruscant?"

"Uh… where?"

Matt cleared his throat. "The center planet. Home of the Republic, and Jedi Temple. Think of it as… Earth."

AJ thought for a moment, before nodding quickly. "Oh! Right. Coruscant! Sure, you can take him…"

Kristy looked at AJ. "I'm sensing a but…"

AJ huffed. "But… as a," she waved her fingers in the air, "bounty hunter, I do require a fee, for doing the hard part."

Matt couldn't help but smirk. "How big of a fee?" Aayla asked. AJ shrugged. "Uh… let's say… 25,000 credits?" Aayla thought for a moment, before nodding slowly. "Well, I think that can be arranged."

"Great, so, then, let's go. I'll show you to him."

Kristy turned to the commandos. "Secure the area. No one gets in or out until he's completely secure."

Boss and Niner nodded. "Copy that, Kay."

Kay nodded, and turned to catch up with Matt and Aayla as AJ led them down a winding corridor. AJ stopped and hit a button, causing the doors to slide away, and she led the three into the security bay, where They saw Blazer, unarmed, and in his under garments, locked up behind an energy field, with two security droids standing on guard.

Matt smirked. "Impressive. His weapon?"

"5,000 credits."

Matt pulled out a credit chip and handed it to her. She reached down on her belt and pulled off a light saber hilt and handed it to him. He smiled softly. He had his enemy's weapon in his hands. It was over for Blazer. As it goes, a Jedi's light saber is his life. Well, the same was true for a Sith. Sort of. They were still dangerous. The anger they'd built up inside was enough. The light saber – a mere accessory.

Matt clipped the weapon to his own belt, and stepped up to the energy field. He didn't glare. He didn't laugh. He just stared. "Looks like you lose, my old friend." He said to Blazer, who just sneered. "I will always be one step ahead of you, Matt."

Outside, at the front landing bay, Niner looked up, his visor cutting the glare of the sunlight, as he spotted an incoming ship. "Captain. We've got an incoming ship…"

Darman cut Niner off. "Take that back. We've got a few dozen ships incoming."

Kristy put a hand to her helmet. "Uh… guys… we've got a problem."

Aayla and AJ turned to Kristy. "What is it?" Aayla asked. "Fighters… oh God."

Matt just cocked an eyebrow, subconsciously taking notice of the sudden fear in the conversation behind him, but having his main focus on Blazer. "How do you figure your one step ahead? I'm not the one behind an energy barrier."

Blazer chuckled. "That's a good point. But, just because you've been knocked off the board, doesn't mean you can't have an effect on the game. I figure you've got about 60 seconds."

Time suddenly slowed down as Matt turned to Kristy, AJ, and Aayla. There was a sudden rumble. Followed by a louder explosion. Suddenly the commandos rushed into the bay, firing their rifles behind them. Fixer hit the door controls, before Sev blasted them completely.

Fi cocked an eyebrow behind his helmet. "Well that was good. How do we get out?" He asked. Suddenly there was a rapid beeping. "Charges. Down!" Boss hissed, causing both squads to dive for cover as the doors exploded. Blaster fire began to pour into the room, as did battle droids.