I'm sorry that haven't posted in a while. My computer got hit by a virus, so we spent a few days cleaning up my PC. Also, I was at a Summer Media Camp. Aside from that, I lost view of where this story was going, so I lost my vigor to keep on writing it. Once again, I'm sorry for the wait, I hope that y'all are enjoying the story so far, and thank you so much for the reviews. They really helped get me going. It's nice to know that someone actually reads these things. My ultimate hope is that George Lucas reads this thing and makes it an episode of TCW. But that's just a hope. Like, a one in a million hope. Thanks for reading it anyway.
The last battle droid fell with a clunk to the ground. Ahsoka let the blades of her lightsabers retreat back into the hilts. This small group of droids had made themselves known by sniping a clone, and then killing a few more with a rocket launcher. After the remaining troops set up positions, she, Codi, Bastion, Rex, and Boomer had gone out to find them. Ahsoka had found one and the fact that there had to be more made her nervous.
Taking a quick glance around, she made sure that she was alone, and then she settled into a firm stance and immersed herself into the Force. The trees around her faded from green to a glowing white, then they became invisible. She filtered through all of the information for what she looked for. She ignored the Pylat birds tending their nest. She disregarded the lizards hunting the rodents. Droids were difficult to sense in the Force (because they were not a part of it) but not impossible. She could find no droids in her immediate vicinity, so she spread out her essence further. She found Rex, Bastion, and Boomer, and there were three battle droids nearby. When she felt two droids drop, she knew which faction was winning. And then she felt…
…him….
He was in an amphitheater of six droids, taking them down with ease. Ahsoka noticed that he felt…different in the Force. When she had been with Master Luminara on the Tranquility and Geonosis, the Mirialan had been like a smooth, polished stone in the streambed of the Force: letting the water flow unhindered, and letting the water (Force) flow smoothly by, thus Luminara's part of the river was calm. The same could be said of Masters Kenobi, Ti, and Koon. Anakin was also mostly a calm bed, but (going by the "River" example) his flow became more erratic, turbulent, even dangerous when he was fighting. Codi was like a dangerous strait: calm on the surface, but concealing something dark and dangerous beneath. It made her more nervous than the lack of droids.
She brought herself out of the immersion and back to the real world. Said real world spun a bit as she returned, and she felt light headed. She shook her head a few times, trying to clear the haze. Contrary to popular belief, the Force was quite energy draining when you immersed yourself in it. Some masters could meditate for days on end, but that was a very advanced technique.
Giving her head one last shake, she trekked off to find the others. When she arrived at the clones' position, they were bent over the body of a fallen droid.
"I know that look trooper. What's the matter," she inquired.
Rex stood, still holding the battle droid's head. "Something odd is going on here. This is a scout droid."
"A scout droid?"
"Yeah," Boomer said under the ARF armor. "They travel light and usually have only a few ordinance weapons. That shell was the only one that they were carrying."
"And that's odd because…?" Ahsoka asked.
"Scout groups are usually for recon. They move ahead of the main force and clear out enemy scouts if a surprise attack is expected."
"So if the scout droids are here," Ahsoka wondered aloud.
"Then where is the main force?" Bastion finished.
The forest took on an eerie quiet as the question loomed.
"Perhaps we should call Master Tone about this?"
Three blasters and two lightsabers were immediately pointed at the speaker.
Codi barely flinched, despite the fact that the skin on the end of his nose was getting fairly warm from the glowing blade that had nearly gone through his brain.
Bastion sighed in exasperation and lowered the rifle. "Codi, when will you learn to stop doing that?"
Codi just stared darkly. "It's not my fault that you can't be aware of your surroundings. But, back to the matter at hand. The droids I took care of were also a scout group, all with high powered sniper rifles and auto turrets. It took a while to get close enough to kill them, but when I got there, one of them stepped on the holocomm that they had been using before I could stop it." He extended a sunset hand holding the shattered remains. "I was hoping that you clones could salvage something from it."
Bastion took it with a gloved hand and turned it around a few times. "Well, based on the runes and design, it's Geonosian. It's not as high-end as you would find with a Trade-Fed official, but it's got a really good receiver. Based on the wear, this has been only used a few times."
"How do you know?" Ahsoka asked.
"The slight charring on the edges," Bastion replied. "Everytime that a signal is transmitted, the heat created burns a tiny bit of the structure. The fewer the uses, the less the charring. And by the look of this charring, this hasn't been used for more than a week. And recently."
"How recently?" Codi inquired.
"Thirty minutes to an hour ago sir."
"Can you get some of the conversation 2104?" Rex asked.
"I can try," Bastion said, taking a seat on the mossy ground. "Even though, I've never been much of an eavesdropper….gossip was never my thing…"
"Bastion!" Codi barked. The clone looked up, slightly startled. Ahsoka took it that Bastion had never been addressed by Codi this way.
Ever obediently, the clone conceded a "Yessir," and then began to furiously work at the piece of equipment.
Had Ahsoka been the clone, Codi might have found himself on the receiving end of a rather vicious upper-cut. But seeing as she was not, sarcasm would have to do. "Looks like someone woke up on the wrong side of the cot this morning."
The clones chuckled softly under their helmets. Codi just snarled and gave Ahsoka a look that would have set a Woshyr tree ablaze. This look normally shut people up rather effectively, but not this time. It just fueled the fire. "The funny thing is," Ahsoka continued, "that I didn't know bog-boys* slept!"
Codi drew a breath as if he was about to say something, but suddenly froze. His eyes darted quickly from side to side, as if he heard something. "Do you feel that?"
"Feel what?" Rex inquired.
"That!" Ahsoka could feel it too. The air shook in her montrals. Something big, no, HUGE was moving, and not too far away.
Bastion, seated, felt the ground itself vibrate in the plastoid plates of his armor. Looking at the ground, he saw grains of dirt skip across the few spaces of non-moss covered ground.
Rex stiffened as he felt the vibrations too. He gave a few hand gestures and then he and Boomer disappeared into the foliage.
Codi turned to look at the seated Bastion. The helmet didn't even turn from his Geonosian holocomm. "You go. I'll stay here and work at this."
Codi nodded and slipped into the foliage.
Ahsoka threw a concerned glance over her shoulder at the clone. She could feel his focus in the Force, but also the anger that roiled in the corner of his mind. She wanted to stay, but as she had learned from Aayla, what is best for the individual is not always best for the group. So she followed Codi into the bush.
She quickly caught up with him and hissed "You should apologize to Bastion."
"I know," Codi sighed. "I don't know why I acted like that."
"I know why. Last night."
Codi froze in the midst of a tangle of roots. He didn't say anything but his expression said enough.
"I felt it too," Ahsoka said.
"How did it feel for you?"
"Hmmm. It felt…nice." She mentally slapped herself for not saying anything better.
Codi apparently felt the same way. "Nice? We dance to a Mandalorian beat in the middle of the night on a hostile planet, and all it was just nice?"
D'oh! Time for a witty comeback! Think Ahsoka think! "Well…okay, nice isn't exactly the best word, but you know what I mean." SLAP! HOW WAS THAT WITTY!
"No I don't. How did it feel?" Codi was actually wearing a curious grin.
Ahsoka wracked her Togruta brain for adjective. "Um…ah…nice, fast, primal, warm, fierce…"
Too late, Ahsoka realized that she had listed her adjectives outloud. Codi wore a countenance of bemused surprise. "Fierce, huh? Primal?"
A magnificent blush blossomed on her red cheeks. She tried to say something, but all that came out was a soft whimper. She turned away to hide another blush that she felt coming on.
"Because it felt like that to me too."
Ahsoka froze. What did he say?
"It felt…nice."
She turned around again to find Codi so close to her that she could feel the heat from his body. She realized that he was about two or three centimeters taller that she was when she had to look up into his eyes. Force, what beautiful eyes. They looked like deep, clear oceans, or the crown jewels of Alderaan. Heck, they looked like nothing she had ever seen before.
That electric surge shot through her body again when she felt him take her hands. "I would very much like to dance with you again sometime."
She wanted him to enfold her in those strong arms that she knew were beneath his sleeves, to hold her against his chest and feel his heart beat. Her eyes half closed and she leaned in for a second pass on those full lips that she had missed last night. His breath washed over her, smelling like turu-grass on a warm sea-breeze. She leaned in to get a taste of-
"Commanders?"
Ahsoka was never quite sure how they did it, but in the elapsed time of 0.7 seconds they both managed to get into attentive positions and face the clone who was coming out of the brush like there was nothing abnormal.
Rex paused, not quite sure what he had witnessed.
"What is it Captain?" Codi inquired.
Rex shook himself a bit. "Well…ah..there's something out here you should see."
They followed the clone to the edge of the plateau, where the ground abruptly dropped down into a chasm so deep that the river at the bottom was invisible. But hidden behind the brush, two clones and Jedi Padawans looked on in awe at what they saw.
There were droids. Thousands of B-1, B-2, and Destroyer droids moved in a unified column, intermingled within the ranks were AATs, OG-9 homing spider droids, and- good grief, there were at least 100 A-DSD Advanced dwarf spider droids, and the sky was full of Hyena bombers. It would have been a magnificent sight had it not been the opposing army. "Call General Skywalker," Ahsoka murmured, almost afraid that the huge column across the chasm would hear her. "We have to warn him." Rex thumbed his com-link, but was rewarded with static and a flashing red light. "I can't raise them Commander. There's no signal." "Or we're being jammed," Boomer growled.Bastion strode up behind them, taking in the spectacle from under his helmet. "I figured as much. I got the holocomm to replay its last transmission."
He extended a gloved hand and pressed a button.
A tall Weequay resolved over the display. He looked calm and reserved, almost like a Jedi, but they all knew that this figure was no Jedi. It was Sora Bulq, traitor to the Jedi and Republic. "Unit X, you will eliminate any scout groups that the clones send forth. When contact is made, regroup with the main army, converge on the enemy's position and kill them all."
The hologram dissolved with an eerie, crackling hiss.
Rex once again tried to raise the Jedi Masters far away, but they all knew it was futile.
Ahsoka just hoped that a few would survive the onslaught to come.
Next chappie will return to the action scenes. Good luck, and may the Force be with you all.
