The trip through the wormhole went smoothly. To their surprise, they did arrive at their desired location, just minutes from Coruscant. As they continued their approach the communications system came online.
"Shuttle Varrac, this is Coruscant ground control. Please identify yourself."
"This is Commander Cody aboard the shuttle Varrac. Requesting permission to land."
"Cody!" whoever was on the other end of the line exclaimed happily. "We had almost given up hope on you. Give me a minute, there's someone who's longing to talk to you."
"Cody. Nice to hear from you," Obi-Wan Kenobi said in his usual calm voice. "Please tell me, where have you been, and how did you manage to appear here so suddenly? And is Captain Rex with you?"
"Yes, I am, General," Rex replied happily.
"Oh, I'm sure Anakin and Ahsoka will be most delighted to hear that. Anyway, welcome back, you two, you have landing permission on platform G-8376. I'll be there."
"Thank you, sir. We're preparing to land."
# # #
"Welcome back, Cody. Captain Rex." Obi-Wan shook their hands in greeting.
"Thank you, General. It's good to be back," Cody replied.
"The council is eager to hear your story and has summoned a special meeting. Please follow me, we shouldn't let them wait," Obi-Wan said, leading them towards the nearby Jedi Temple.
Minutes later, they stepped through the doors of the council chamber. Obi-Wan took his regular seat while Rex and Cody removed their helmets and stood in the middle of the room like guests usually did.
"Quite a story to tell you have, hm?" Yoda greeted them.
"Yes… General."
"Tell us, tell us! Start at the very beginning, you should."
"We were just returning from our mission when we ran into a separatist patrol…"
# # #
"… and we returned just minutes from Coruscant," the two clones wrapped up their story.
"So that separatist fleet disappeared for a reason. I'm just not sure whether I like that reason," Obi-Wan concluded.
"I sure don't. It is very disturbing that the separatists know of a civilization with such power, and even worse, how to get there," Mace Windou added.
"Hm, yes, great disturbances in the Force, I feel; from far away, they come," Yoda said.
"I'm feeling it, too," Mace Windou confirmed.
"Difficult times before us we have, much more difficult than now. For your report, thank you we do, Captain, Commander. Now please, leave us alone, hm?"
"Sure. Goodbye, Generals." The two clones left the room.
The masters returned to their conversation. "Do you think we should attempt to contact them as well?" Abi-Wan wondered. "With such powerful allies on our side, we should have no issues defeating Dooku."
"No," Yoda said firmly, "Their wish to remain neutral, they clearly stated. Respect it, we must."
"I know, Master Yoda. But they took out an entire fleet. I'm aware that the separatists shot first, but to Dooku, it must seem like they had chosen sides already," Obi-Wan added.
"Hm… Not wrong, you are, Obi-Wan. Closely monitor Dooku's every move we must; and contact them we will, when necessary it appears. For now, close this meeting we should, until more information we have," Yoda concluded.
With this, the Jedi masters rose from their seats and shuffled out of the council chamber.
The end.
(\' '/)
I am aware that this probably was not the action-loaded showdown ending you were expecting. I know I sometimes let you down with short chapters and long waits. I'm sorry. They say that for your first work as an author, the most important thing of all is that you finish it, which I am very proud to have finally achieved. I know that my style of writing was not exceptional (it wasn't even very consistent), and to most people the plot must have been boring with a rather disappointing ending. I noticed that you can really see the development of my stress level over time, lol. Nope, school didn't do my writing any good :D
Anyways, thanks a lot for reading - stay safe and may the Force be with you on all your journeys! I'm also announcing (if you can call it that) that there is a high probability that I will make a sequel to this. I just don't yet know when I will do that or how it will develop. The only thing I can say is that it definitely will not happen until October (in fact, I myself would be surprised if it still happened in 2016). So be sure to check back in a year or so, or simply follow me as an author to see what I come up with next :)
Thanks again for reading - ArdiMaster out.
