The Battle of Alderaan
The explosion of blaster fire against the hull of the Kaleesh vessel lit up the far corner of the viewport, drawing the attention of everyone standing on the bridge of the Menace. Tarkin looked up from the computer terminal he'd been hovering over, his eyes narrowed. He strode to the viewport as another spray of blaster fire began to cross space, this time from the Kaleesh toward the Neimodians.
"What is going on? Report!" Tarkin demanded, turning to the nearest bridge officer.
"Sir, Sector Seven is reporting some kind of coolant malfunction...possibly there was an attack."
"An attack? Carried out by whom?"
"I don't know sir, our communications seem to be down, we can't hail any of the other ships on the network," the officer said nervously as he consulted his data pad. Tarkin turned back to the viewport as a Kaleesh ship exploded. Other factions of Separatists seemed to be joining the fray now. If he didn't reassert control soon, the entire fleet would descend into chaos. He rounded on the officer.
"Get down to Sector Seven and find out what is going on. Contain the situation, lieutenant, at any cost," Tarkin ordered. The officer saluted and hurried off. Tarkin marched over to the communications computer terminal and stood over the shoulder of the officer there. The screen, normally awash in green with data, was blank. Fuming, Tarkin began to pace the bridge, but this exercise was interrupted as the Menace shook with the force of what could only be the fire of a laser cannon.
"Stations, now!" Tarkin shouted. "Tactical, find out who fired on us and send a warning shot over their bow." Another blast rocked the ship, forcing Tarkin to grab a bulkhead to brace himself. The scene outside had become more grim and chaotic. Blaster fire spewed in all directions, and now some of the larger ships were releasing fighters to join the fray. This kind of chaos didn't erupt in a vacuum, Tarkin knew that much. Someone was sabotaging the invasion fleet. He would regain control, by whatever means necessary.
Sola was thrown forward into the wall as the ship rocked with yet another explosion. Warning lights flashed in the corridor as the guards rushed around trying to repair the damaged systems. Across from her, Ackbar was crouched near the edge of his cell, watching the frantic guards. No doubt he was thinking, as she was, that if there was going to be a chance to escape this was it.
A panicked voice crackled in over the comm and a moment later about half the guards left the brig. Sola hadn't been able to hear the full conversation, but it sounded as though they had been summoned to another area of the ship that had taken heavy damage. Another blast, more violent than before, hit the ship. Sola braced herself against the bench in her cell. The force-field in front of her flickered, but remained on. She held her breath. One more blow like that, and just maybe…
A bulkhead in the corridor exploded, sending sparks and bits of metal flying. Sola ducked down and felt shards of hot metal graze the back of her jacket. The force field was down. She looked up and saw that Ackbar's cell was open as well, but blocked by the wreckage. The body of a guard who had been standing too near the blockhead was sprawled half inside her cell. Through the ringing in her ears she could still hear shouting in the corridor. Sola knew the remaining guards would move to restore order quickly.
Lunging forward, Sola grabbed the dead guard and hauled him fully into her cell. She frantically searched his utility belt, looking for the key to unlock the collar around her neck. She could hear the guards moving toward her through the wreckage in the corridor. Finally, she found a small set of keys and pulled them off the guard's belt. The first key didn't work, and her heart began to race faster.
She saw the gloved hand of a guard appear around the threshold of her cell as he tried to pull himself past the scattered remains of the bulkhead. She fumbled with the next key, but finally forced it into the slot and heard a satisfying click as the collar fell from her neck. As it clattered to the floor, the guard finally succeeded in scrambling over the debris outside and appeared at the edge of her cell, his blaster trained on her forehead.
"Don't move or I'll shoot" he said shakily. His helmet was gone and his forehead was bleeding. Sola remained where she was, crouched above the body of the other guard. There was a sudden sound of metal against metal as the debris covering Ackbar's cell began to shift. The guard whirled around and Sola took advantage of his momentary distraction. She raised her hand and the blaster flew out of his grip and into hers.
She turned the weapon on the guard. He looked at her, his expression a mixture of terror and astonishment. From the other side of the wreckage blocking the hall she could hear the muffled calls of another guard asking if everything was alright. Sola got to her feet and grabbed the guard by his collar, pulling him close so she could be sure he heard every word.
"Tell him everything is fine. Tell him the prisoners are dead." She whispered into the guard's ear, keeping his blaster pressed against his chest. He swallowed nervously, but did as he was told.
"It's alright, the prisoners are dead," the guard shouted back to his companion.
"Good riddance. Get back over here and we'll follow the others to Sector Seven. Some kind of breach in the comm hub. No point sticking around here," the other guard answered. Her hostage glanced at her, wondering what the next move was. Sola jerked her head in the direction of his companion's voice and he started to move that way, but, struck by inspiration, Sola grabbed him and pulled him back.
"If you betray me, if you reveal that I'm alive, I will know, and I will find you," she told the guard in a low growl. It was a bluff, of course, but the guard had no way of knowing that. He'd just had his own weapon taken from him by what must have seemed to him to be magic. By the quiver in his face as he nodded, she knew he'd taken the bait. She pointed to the pile of wreckage down the corridor and he scrambled back up and over it. She heard the door on the other side open and close as the guards left.
Sola picked her way over to Ackbar's cell and pulled up a large piece of debris. She found the young Mon Calamari captain underneath it, unhurt but somewhat shaken. She offered him her hand and he wrapped his flipper around it. She pulled him up and out into the debris-laden corridor.
"The guards...how did you…" Ackbar began to ask, looking around as Sola moved to the guard's uniform locker. She tucked the blaster into her belt and pulled out a Separatist jacket that was at least two sizes too big for her.
"I have a few tricks up my sleeve," she said as she pulled on the too-large jacket over her own. She pulled a helmet from the locker to complete the ensemble. "Now, what do you say to getting the hell off this ship?"
A door on the far side of the bridge hissed open and Darth Maul entered, his black hood over his head, his cloak billowing out behind him. Tarkin's temper flared. He didn't need to deal with the Sith Lord on top of the present crisis. But, he straightened his tunic and maintained his composure.
"Lord Maul," Tarkin said, inclining his head slightly. Maul strode forward, stopping next to Tarkin and looking out at the evolving scene of infighting. He did not seem to want to acknowledge Tarkin's existence.
"It's the Jedi," Maul said, still looking out the viewport. Tarkin looked up at him, his pulse accelerating. It wasn't possible. True, the rumours were that the Jedi had been taken by the Rogues, but all indications were he had found no help among them. How could one man be causing such disruption?
"Are you certain? It could be the Rogues." Tarkin offered, realizing that his gambit to bring the Jedi in alive might have backfired in a way he'd failed to anticipate. This could prove very bad for him indeed.
"It is Kenobi," Maul said firmly. "He is more foolhardy than I thought." Tarkin wasn't sure what that meant exactly, but before he could get clarification another bridge officer ran up to him.
"Sir, we have a report of a breach on the detention level. Force fields are down in the brig," the officer said breathlessly. Maul turned to Tarkin.
"I will handle this. Get your troops back in order, Colonel. Do what must be done," Maul said. Then he swept from the room. The bridge officer waited a beat, then pressed on with more bad news.
"Sir, all attempts to restore communication have failed," he said. "What are your orders?" Tarkin glowered down at the officer. Maul was right. The time for extreme action had come.
"There is only one option," Tarkin said. "If our friends have become our enemies, we will destroy them."
"Sir?" the officer asked, not comprehending the meaning of Tarkin's words.
"Any Separatist ship not flying under the direct command of Lord Maul must be destroyed," Tarkin ordered. The blood seemed to drain from the officer's face as he stared back at Tarkin. So many of them were unprepared to do what was required. It disgusted Tarkin. "The clone troopers will see it done. Only they can be trusted now."
"You want us to fire on our own troops, sir?" the officer asked, still uncertain. Tarkin fixed the officer with a sharp look.
"When a limb is poisoned, you cut if off, lieutenant," he said. "You cut it off, or you die."
Tactical Headquarters for the Rogues was located deep beneath Aldera in a now defunct section of tunnel once used for subterranean transit. The former transit line ran from the now abandoned parts of the city near the edge of the meadowlands into the heart of Aldera. The Rogues had worked for years to extend the tunnel into the mountains, providing a lifeline into the capital for exactly one purpose: the future liberation of Aldera.
Padme stood at the holoprojector they'd set up at the end of the tunnel, flipping through images of their troops all around the city displayed from hacked security cameras. She watched the chronometer embedded in the display. Dawn would be arriving shortly, and with it, their long awaited attack. She tapped her fingers nervously against the edge of the projector as she watched the seconds pass.
"Commander." Padme turned as an officer approached her. "Commander Lyosar is here. She wishes to speak with you," the officer said. Padme looked at him in confusion.
"Commander Lyosar is with her commandos in the southwest quadrant," Padme said, but even as she said it KeAnn appeared behind the officer, her shoulders draped in a dark brown robe. Padme recognized it immediately as the cloak of a Jedi. She dismissed the officer. Whatever KeAnn had to say, it seemed probable it would be better for them to converse in private.
"What are you doing here? You're supposed to be on the ground! We attack in less than an hour," Padme said in a low voice, conscious of the Rogues working only a few meters away. "And what, in the Queen's name, are you doing wearing Kenobi's cloak?" she asked.
"Officially, I'm here to report a new battery in the old Celchu district," KeAnn said rather loudly, but then she leaned in and lowered her voice, "Unofficially, I'm here to tell you that Kenobi is on Maul's flagship," she whispered, "and I helped him get there." Padme looked at KeAnn, momentarily stunned. "Report me to Breha if you want, but my family is on Coruscant, so are the families of thousands of other Alderaanians, I couldn't just sit by and…" Padme put up her hand and KeAnn went quiet.
"I know. I know, you're right," Padme said. KeAnn looked a little surprised by Padme's reaction. Padme lowered her eyes when she spoke again. "I helped Skywalker commandeer one of our captured Separatist ships," she admitted. KeAnn blinked at her a few times, then let out a small, breathy laugh, shaking her head.
"Well, trouble loves company I suppose," KeAnn said. "If the princess finds out, we'll both be in for it."
"I don't see any reason for her to find out," Padme said firmly. She didn't want to admit her betrayal to Breha. She wasn't sure she would ever be able to repair the damage to their friendship if she did.
The officer who had brought KeAnn to her suddenly ran up to them, brandishing a data disk. "Commander, our informant from one of the blockade ships says the Separatists have started attacking each other."
"What? Show me," Padme ordered. The officer inserted the disk into the projector. Alderaan's surface disappeared and was replaced with a view of the Separatist fleet above the planet. The three Rogues watched as the recording unfolded, the officer gesturing to a Neimoidian vessel on the far side of the image. Padme recognized it immediately as the ship Anakin had stolen.
"The Neimodians fired on the Kahleesh and all hell broke loose," the officer said as the recording progressed to show a small number of blaster bolts blossoming into a scene of chaotic fire and explosions. "Reports are that the whole Separatist communication array is down."
"I don't believe it," Padme said, half to herself. "They actually did it." As the battle unfolded, Padme furrowed her brow, keeping her eyes on the Menace. "What is Maul's ship doing?"
"It's attacking the other Separatists. As are its fighters," KeAnn said as she watched, leaning over the projector.
"Maul is trying to reassert control," Padme said thoughtful. She looked at KeAnn. The ex-Jedi seemed to be having the same realization she was. It was possible that Obi-Wan and Anakin had provided them with an opportunity, if they could move to take advantage of it. An opportunity to destroy the entire Separatist fleet, once and for all. She pointed to the officer. "Get the other commanders on the comm, and tell them to hold position," she ordered. "I have to speak with the princess."
Hysteria reigned in the corridors of the Menace as Sola ran after Ackbar, following him to the hangar bay that held his shuttle. Separatist troops, clone or otherwise, were running through the halls, trying to follow the hastily barked orders of their officers. In the mad dash all around them, the two escaped prisoners went undetected, Ackbar's Separatist uniform and Sola's improvised disguise were sufficient. No one was going to stop them to take a closer look while their ship was under attack.
As they neared the hangar, Ackbar pulled Sola aside. "My shuttle is in the hangar up ahead. If I can reach my fleet, I can turn them against Maul and his forces."
"Then we'd better get you onto that shuttle. Come on," Sola said, continuing down the corridor. She worried that joining Ackbar's fleet might only be trading one bad situation for another. Joining a smaller opposition force seemed more like suicide than escape. But it would give her some distance from Maul and, hopefully, keep Anakin from attempting to infiltrate the Menace.
When they arrived at the hangar they found it was also teeming with activity. Clone pilots were being launched in fighters, one after the other. There seemed to be no end to their numbers. Ackbar continued on toward his shuttle, not slowing down a beat. Sola followed his lead. It had to look like they were just another couple of troops eager to join the fight. Ackbar was only meters from the lowered gangway, with Sola trailing just behind him, when a voice rang out from the other side of the hangar.
"Hey! You don't have clearance to take that vessel!" One of the officers overseeing the fighter launches had seen them.
"Run for it!" Sola hissed to Ackbar as the officer strode toward them. The other Separatist troops around him were beginning to take notice also. Ackbar hesitated, even as a round of blaster fire passed directly over their heads. Warning shots. Sola knew the next ones wouldn't be. "Get the hell out of here! You have to get your fleet to attack this ship!" she shouted as she took aim with her blaster and returned fire.
This time Ackbar listened and sprinted up the gangway. Sola dodged the blaster bolts of the Separatists and moved away from the shuttle, trying to draw them off the vessel. The shuttle's gangway closed and turned its guns on the Separatists. The soldiers dove out of the way as the laser cannon strafed them. Ackbar blasted at the clone fighters waiting to launch, then gunned his engines and took off, headed for the flagship of the fleet from Mon Cala.
Temporarily put off their attack by Ackbar's dramatic exit, the Separatists now turned their attention back to Sola. Recognizing that she was outgunned, she made a run for it, back down the corridor she and Ackbar had just come from. She sprinted as hard as she could, pushing through the crowds of Separatists that clogged the passage, looking for a place to hide.
She dodged into an open door and found herself in the midst of some kind of briefing. A couple of Separatists turned to look at her, but the briefing continued. She realized that they simply thought she was running late. Sola stood at attention, controlling her breathing as she looked ahead at the officer addressing the group.
She heard a rush of boots as her pursuers ran past, but they didn't check the briefing room. Sola continued to stand through the agonizingly long set of instructions provided by the droning officer leading the briefing. At last, he concluded the meeting and the Separatists in the room began to disperse. Sola slipped out with them, once again disappearing into the mass of soldiers.
She couldn't keep up her disguise forever. Sooner or later, someone was going to catch her. Besides that, she could sense Anakin's presence nearby, as well as that of the Jedi. Her son was certain to attempt some ill-advised rescue attempt. She had to get off the ship and find him before he tried anything foolish. She knew a ship as large as the Menace would have another hangar bay, maybe several more. Commandeering a ship was her best hope of escape. She had to find one, and fast.
Padme ran through the corridors of Rogue Base, looking for the princess. She'd come in person, knowing the risk of an intercepted transmission, but also knowing Breha would be more likely to listen to her face to face. She entered the hangar and spotted Breha at it's edge, deep in conversation with the commander of the Rogue fleet. She sprinted to the princess, and, hurriedly begging the commander's forgiveness, pulled her away into a corner where they could talk.
"Padme, what are you doing?" Breha asked, shocked at Padme's sudden appearance. "The attack will begin in mere moments, you should be at Tactical."
"The situation has changed," Padme said, still breathing hard from her run. Breha furrowed her brow.
"What? What are you talking about?" she asked.
"The Separatists are attacking one another, their coalition seems to be falling apart," Padme said quickly. Breha was taken aback. She shook her head in confusion.
"How is that possible?" she asked, skeptical. Padme dodged the question.
"What does it matter? This is our chance, Breha. With the Separatist forces in chaos, we can do more than free Alderaan. We may actually be able to destroy the Separatist fleet," Padme said excitedly, willing Breha to agree with her. But Breha's face was clouded by doubt.
"No one has seen Skywalker or Kenobi since last night, yet we have no record of them leaving the base...could this be their doing?" Breha asked, half to herself. Padme clenched her jaw, wondering how much to reveal to Breha. The less said, she decided, the better.
"If it is them, they've already struck an incredible blow against the Separatists. We can capitalize on that. This isn't a suicide mission anymore, Breha."
"It's still risky. Very risky," Breha said, but Padme could sense her resolve to stay out of the larger fight softening. "We could end up losing everything we've fought for," Breha said quietly.
"Then keep part of the fleet just below orbit, to guard the ground assault," Padme said. "We can still take back the city. That way, if the Separatists try to return to Alderaan, we'll be in a better position to stop them,' she explained. Breha looked wary. Padme understood her hesitation. It was still a gamble, but she had to convince Breha to take it. "Breha, you and I were orphaned by the invasion. We lost everything. We suffered, we fought, we watched our friends die. Now we have a chance, a real chance, to end the war. A chance for Alderaan, for all of us, to return to a life of peace."
Padme watched Breha's face carefully. She could read the strong emotions barely concealed behind it. She'd hit on a nerve, several nerves in fact. But she believed it had to be said, and she believed it was true. At last, Breha nodded, waving the fleet commander back over.
"Commander, assemble the fleet," Breha ordered. "I have a new mission for you."
Warning lights flashed across the cockpit as Anakin struggled to keep his commandeered ship out of the way of incoming blaster fire. His plan seemed to have worked, possibly a little too well, as he now found himself trying to stay alive at the epicenter of the most chaotic firefight he'd ever witnessed.
Anakin juked the controls, spiralling out of the way of another round of cannon fire. He drifted in closer to one of the larger ships, trying to use it for cover. It was impossible to predict where the next round of fire would come from. Every ship seemed to be firing on every other ship. It was pandemonium.
Fighters began to pour from the hangar bays of the Menace, attacking all the Separatist ships not flying under Maul's banner. Their onslaught provided a reprieve as the other Separatists began to turn their attention from each other to focus on the new threat. Anakin brought his ship around, staying at the edge of the fray. He was biding his time, waiting for an opportunity to get close to the Menace. He had to be prepared to extract Obi-Wan and his mother when the moment came.
As Anakin watched, he saw a shuttle rocket away from the Menace toward the Mon Calamari fleet. It's sister ships raced to defend it, and he saw the shuttle disappear into the hangar bay of the Mon Calamari flagship. Minutes later, the Mon Calamari fleet shifted its tactics, concentrating all its considerable firepower against the Menace and the other ships flying under Maul's direct command. New allegiances began to form, with the Separatist groups either aligning themselves with Maul or the fleet from Mon Cala.
The Kaleesh, under the command of General Grievous, the Neimodians and the paid mercenaries of the Banking Clan, moved to stand with Maul against the new front that was forming. Anakin stayed with the Neimodians where his ship would blend in best. He kept up his blaster fire to avoid suspicion, but continued to miss his targets on purpose. Among the Neimoidian forces, largely made up of droid combatants, he was hardly alone in his inaccuracy.
Suddenly, several ships on his flank exploded. Anakin looked over and saw a small fleet of fighters and light cruisers moving toward them from the planet. He squinted his eyes, not quite believing what he was seeing, but as the fighters streaked past, there could be no doubt. The Rogues had arrived.
Padme shifted uncomfortably in the cockpit of her fighter, unused to the confined space. She rarely flew in a fighter, but she'd convinced the shorthanded fleet commander she was up to it. In the early days of the Rogues she had always been on the front lines, and if today was going to see the end of the Separatists, that was where she wanted to be once more.
She led the eleven other pilots of her squadron toward the battle ahead. As she surveyed the Separatist fleet she saw that the ships had formed two opposing lines, one headed up by Maul's forces, the other by the Mon Calamari fleet. The fleet commander saw it too. "This is Commander Baden. Focus the attack on the Menace and it's allies. Commander Kila, take your squadron and get after those Kaleesh ships. Commander Naberrie, the Neimodians are yours. All other units focus on the destruction of those clone fighters and disabling the guns on the Menace."
Commander Kila and his fighters peeled off towards General Grievous and his ships, while Padme pulled her fighter in the other direction, heading for the Neimodians. "Split up and spread out, delta formation," she ordered as the squadron approached the enemy. Two wingmen fell into position behind her as the rest of the squadron also formed up into groups of three and staggered themselves along the line of attack.
As the enemy came into range, Padme fired a volley at the closest vessel, a small droid fighter, and watched it go up in a fireball. The Rogues flanking her soon destroyed two more fighters. The squadron shot through the planetside flank of the Neimoidian forces, taking them unawares. But the element of surprise didn't last long. The larger cruisers turned their laser cannon on the Rogues and Padme held tight to the controls as a laser cannon blast grazed her shields.
"Yarin, Avery, move your groups up make a pass over those cruisers. We'll take out the turret guns behind you," Padme ordered. Half the squadron sped up, passing swiftly over the enemy vessels. The turret guns turned to follow the fighters and Padme and the rest of the squadron followed, blasting the guns while they were pointed away. One of the lead fighters took a hit, and Padme could see black smoke trailing from its starboard engine, but it didn't go down.
The droid fighters now began their offensive in earnest. The small ships were mercilessly fast, but unshielded. The droids the piloted them were also notoriously inaccurate. That was something she could take advantage of. "Scatter, draw those fighters out of formation. Stick close to the cruisers, half their volleys will end up being friendly fire the way those droids shoot," Padme said.
Each member of the squadron veered off in a different direction, creating confusion among the enemy. As Padme had suspected, the droids had trouble maintaining accuracy against an unpredictable flight plan. A couple of fighters even crashed against their own cruisers trying to follow a Rogue fighter through a tight dive and barrel roll.
Padme dodged and weaved among the cruisers, trying to shake a very persistent droid fighter. Blaster fire from the enemy fighter rocked her fighter. She watched the energy levels on her shields begin to drop. Just as she was about to hail one of her comrades for help, a nearby Neimoidian ship started firing. She jerked her fighter out of the way, but the blasts went well wide of her position, striking and destroying the fighter behind her. She took a closer look at the ship that had just saved her. She recognized it almost instantly. It was the same one she'd helped Anakin steal the night before.
With the Rogue fleet incoming, Anakin scrambled to keep up some pretense of taking part in the fight while trying to patch his comm into the Rogue's communication network. He frantically scanned all available comm signals, trying to find the Rogues frequency as his ship was hit by yet another round of fire from the Rogues. He needed to let them know he was on their side, and fast.
He set the scanner to run automatically, hoping it might pick something up but knowing it would be all but impossible to hack into the Rogue's encrypted comm system without an access code. They would have to contact him first. As the squadron of Rogue fighters scattered, he saw their leader pick up a droid tail within his firing range. Activating his laser cannon, he took aim at the droid. He knew once he fired on a Neimoidian ship, he could become the target of the ships he had been hiding amongst, but if he could secure the help of the Rogues it would be worth it.
The droid fighter was locked in his sights. He fired and the ship exploded. The Rogue he'd just saved came about, and a moment later the light indicating an incoming transmission illuminated on the comm. He hit the button.
"Anakin, is that you?" a woman's voice came in over the comm. It took him a moment to realize who it was.
"Padme?" he asked, "What are you doing here?"
"The princess had a change of heart, thanks to your efforts," she said. Anakin had figured that much. What he couldn't understand was how Padme had ended up leading a fighter squadron. He knew that wasn't her normal role in the militia, but as the Neimoidian cruiser next to him turned its guns his way, he decided further questions could wait. He'd given up his disguise, now it was time to go.
"If you could tell your friends not to shoot me, I'd appreciate it," he said as he increased power to the engines and pulled his ship up and out of the way of the impending attack. The laser cannon fire meant for him hit the cruiser that had been sitting on his other side. Knowing he was unlikely to be so lucky again, Anakin began a series of dives and rolls, avoiding the blaster fire as best he could.
"I've alerted them to your presence, but you've got to get out of here. Those Neimoidians may not be much to worry about, but Maul's troops are starting to take notice," she said.
Anakin looked out the viewport and saw that she was right. A full squadron of fighters, piloted by Maul's clones, was headed for him. Anakin weaved through the enemy cruisers, determined not to give them a clear target, but the Neimoidian cruiser wasn't as maneuverable as the freighter he was used to, and several torpedoes found their mark. His engines were beginning to fail and the cockpit was washed in red from all the warning lights. He could smell smoke. This was not good.
"Get out of there Anakin!" Padme shouted through the comm. Anakin leapt from the pilot's chair and ran to the back of the ship, opening the hatch of the only escape pod. Through some miracle, it was still functional. He jettisoned the pod toward the hangar bay of the Menace, not even taking the time to strap in. He was thrown about as the pod hurtled forward into space. Through the tiny viewport, Anakin could just see the yellow flames of the exploding ship he had been on only seconds before. He could also see Padme's fighter racing toward him, giving him cover.
The escape pod hit the floor of the hangar bar with jarring force, throwing Anakin into the other side of it. It began to spin, and he could hear the grating sound of metal against metal. He tried to brace himself against the walls of the pod, but it proved ineffective as it came to a sudden and violent halt against the hangar wall and he was once more tossed from one end to the other. He got up slowly, trying to refocus his spinning vision.
He popped the hatch and stumbled out onto the floor. A few meters away he saw Padme's fighter, half crumpled against the far wall. He heard banging and realized it was the sound of her boots against the cockpit, and a moment later it gave way and opened. She scrambled out of the ruined ship and rushed over to him. She pulled of her helmet as she knelt next to him on the floor, where he sat propped against the escape pod, still shaken from his violent landing.
"Are you alright?" she asked, taking his face in her hands and looking at him closely. He managed to focus his eyes on her. The world had stopped spinning. He nodded slowly. She stood and held out her hand. He grabbed it and she pulled him up. "Well, we are going to need another way off this ship, that's for sure," she said, surveying the wreckage of her fighter.
"I'm not going anywhere without my mother and Obi-Wan," Anakin said. She looked back to him. For a moment he thought she was going to argue, but instead she nodded.
"Alright," she said, "what's your plan?" If Anakin was being honest, he didn't really have one at this point. But he wasn't about to admit that to Padme.
"We need to figure out where they hold prisoners," Anakin said, figuring it was as good a place to start as any. Padme nodded.
"Detention level, it's on deck three, midships," she said knowledgeably. She seemed to be going through some kind of mental map in her head. "This is the aft starboard hangar, deck twelve, so we need a lift. There should be one not too far from here," she said, already starting to walk in the direction of one of the corridors connected to the hangar. Anakin stared at her.
"How do you know so much about this ship?" he asked, impressed.
"I'm the tactical commander for the Rogues," she said, with just a touch of frustration that he would be surprised by her competence, "and lucky for you, I read all the intelligence briefings," she added. She pulled her blaster from it's holster and gestured down the corridor. "So if you follow my lead, we might actually make it out of here alive." With that she turned and started off, leaving Anakin hurrying to catch up. He certainly hoped she was right.
