One Wrong Step
Disclaimer: I don't own.
Chapter 13: The Malevolence
Rey brushed a short strand of hair that had escaped her three buns behind her ear as she strode through the corridors of the ship. She met up with Obi-Wan on the bridge, as he was staring out at the fleeing Malevolence, a ship belonging to the cyborg General Grievous. It had recently tried to destroy a medical station for clones in the Outer Rim; however, Anakin, Ahsoka, and Master Plo Koon had managed to cripple it. Master Plo and Admiral Yularen stood beside Obi-Wan, looking out the viewport. "Commander, what is the damage level to the enemy ship?" Obi-Wan asked.
"She's lost her primary shield and stabilizers, but the ship is so massive it can take all the fire our cannons can give it."
"We must summon reinforcements," Master Plo stated.
"That's why I'm here, Master Plo," a familiar voice said from behind the small group. Anakin and Ahsoka approached from behind.
Rey grinned as Obi-Wan greeted him, "Anakin. Were you able to contact Master Luminara?"
"Yes, Master. She's busy with a fleet of Separatist reinforcements nearby. She won't be able to give us support until she's turned them away."
"Then we'll have to make do with what we have." After a couple more minutes of watching the ship slowly try to creep away, he continued, "Admiral, status report."
"They aren't attempting to jump to hyperspace. Their hyperdrive must be damaged."
"This is our chance. All ships, target the bridge. Maximum fire power!"
Rey watched in awe as the lasers began ripping into Grievous's ship, expecting it to explode into a ball of flames at any moment.
Suddenly, Ahsoka gasped. "Master, I'm picking up a signal near the enemy vessel! Something just came out of hyperspace!"
"Enemy reinforcements?" Anakin asked.
"No…it looks like a…Naboo ship?" Ahsoka was extremely confused, but Rey's thoughts immediately went into active mode. Oh, no, Padmé is getting in trouble. Again.
A single glance at Anakin told her that, while her mind went into active mode, his went into panic mode, as Obi-Wan ordered, "Gunners, stand down!" He turned toward Anakin. "What in blazes are they doing out here?"
"Ahsoka, contact that ship!" Anakin commanded.
"Naboo cruiser, identify yourself," she said over the comlink.
"This is Senator Amidala," the figure in the hologram said. I knew it.
"Padmé? What are you doing out here?" Anakin demanded.
"I was sent on a special mission! The Senate was told the Banking Clan wanted to negotiate a treaty!"
"Get out of there as fast as you can!"
"Have we been hit?" a droid voice asked in the background.
"I'm afraid it's much worse than that," Padmé answered.
"Padmé, what's happening?" Anakin asked.
How has no one else realized that he is much more panicked than he should be?
"I'm being pulled inside the droid cruiser by a tractor beam! I will not be made a Separatist bargaining chip! Continue your attack! You must destroy this monstrous ship!"
Anakin clenched his mechanical fist. "Admiral, order our ships to stop firing." Then he turned and began walking off the bridge.
"Where do you think you're going?" Obi-Wan asked.
"Somebody has to save her skin."
"I thought you might say that," he said, following.
Rey stood still for several moments, looking at a stationary Ahsoka and the two departing Jedi. Finally, she huffed. "Wait for me!" She dashed off to catch up with the two. The three entered a ship, where Anakin and Obi-Wan sat down, leaving Rey standing and hoping Anakin wouldn't do anything crazy. "I trust you've already formulated a brilliant plan to rescue the Senator," Obi-Wan stated dryly.
"As a matter of fact, I have."
"This should be good," Rey muttered.
Anakin gave her a dirty look as Obi-Wan asked, "But do we have a Plan B? Every operation needs a backup, Anakin."
"I don't have a backup-yet. But I do have a plan for getting on that ship."
"Really?"
"The enemy's sensors are obviously damaged, so we'll sneak in behind them and dock at the emergency airlock."
"That's your plan? Just fly there, land, hope they don't spot us, and walk in the door?"
"Basically."
"Told you it would be good." Rey smirked.
"Oh. Brilliant. Let's get going," Obi-Wan said, and Anakin took off, the ship exiting the hangar. As they approached the Malevolence, Obi-Wan commented, "If they spot us, we'll be pulverized."
"They're too busy repairing the ship. They don't have time to notice us," Anakin reassured.
"Subtlety has never been one of your strong points, Anakin."
"Everything I know, I learned from you, Master."
"If only that were true."
They docked at the airlock, as per Anakin's plan, and they got out of the ship, Obi-Wan saying, "Anakin, you're crazy. Spinning is not flying."
"But it's a good trick."
"And it can get you out of a tight spot. One time, I was flying a freighter, and my friend was in the gunner position-we were being fired upon-and I flipped the ship upside down when the gun got stuck so he could use it," Rey said, smiling at the memory of Finn. The doors ahead of them opened as Obi-Wan reminded them, "We do not want to be spotted."
Rey raised her eyebrows as she took in the two battle droids staring directly at them. "A bit late for that."
"Ah, I knew it! It's them!" one cried.
"Oh, no," the other groaned.
The three quickly sliced them in half. "You stay here, R2," Anakin said.
As they rushed through the halls of the ship, Anakin's comlink went off. "Yes?"
"Master," Ahsoka's voice answered. "We found the senator. I'm patching her through."
"Padmé!"
"Anakin!"
"Are you all right? Where are you?"
"I'm on the lower levels. I'm fine, but I don't know for how long. Droids are everywhere."
"Obi-Wan, Rey, and I are onboard, too."
"What! What are you doing here?"
"We came to get you off this ship. Ahsoka, how can we get to the senator?"
"According to our scans, there seems to be a large, open area in the center of the ship. It should be halfway between the two of you."
"We're on our way. Did you hear that, Padmé?"
"I'll be there."
The three Jedi began making their way to the area Ahsoka had described. Several trains whizzed by below them.
"I don't see her, Anakin," Obi-Wan said.
"Neither do I," Rey agreed.
"She's here, you two. I sense it." They all continued looking around until Anakin said, "There," pointing toward an area they could see a firefight going on.
Rey nodded. "Definitely Padmé." The three Jedi leaped down onto a passing train, then onto another, where two of the battle droids firing at Padmé started shooting at them, but Anakin and Obi-Wan redirected the shots back at the droids, who collapsed. Padmé pushed the protocol droid with her onto a train before jumping onto one herself. Anakin called her name and jumped down to a train beside her. Rey and Obi-Wan watched as a super battle droid blew up part of the tracks in front of Padmé, and she jumped toward Anakin, who brought her towards him with the Force. "Nice catch!" Obi-Wan called. "We'll fetch the droid!"
They raced toward the train carrying the droid, and, when Obi-Wan spotted him, he lifted him out of the crate he was hunched in and pulled him in their direction. Before the droid was able to join them, however, another train came along and blasted into him, pushing him in front of it. "Blast! That's not good,"
"Nope. It's not. So…do we go after him?"
"Let me comm. Anakin first." He pushed a button on his wrist-com. "Anakin, we got separated from your droid."
"Threepio!" Padmé exclaimed.
"I'll take care of it." Anakin groaned. "We'll meet you back at the Twilight."
"No! We can't leave yet. I overheard Grievous. Their hyperdrive is almost repaired."
"We're already headed in that direction," Obi-Wan said. "We'll make certain that the hyperdrive stays offline." He disconnected the comm., and the two started running down a nearby hallway.
"We're probably going to meet up with Grievous, aren't we?" Rey asked.
"Most likely."
"Wonderful." The two approached the door to the room where two battle droids were repairing the hyperdrive. The droids looked up at them, but they didn't seem to be in shock or horror, as most droids are. The reason for that became abundantly clear as about twenty droids, battle, superbattle, and droidekas, came from out of nowhere. They heard a hoarse laugh from behind them and turned to see Grievous jump to the ground. "Hello there," he rasped.
Rey gulped.
"General Kenobi," the cyborg continued, "did you really think I would leave the hyperdrive unguarded?"
"Anything is possible. You haven't exactly impressed me today."
Rey whispered through gritted teeth, "Why are you sassing him? We are surrounded inside his ship."
"Kill them," Grievous ordered his droids.
Rey glanced around nervously. "Plan B?"
"Trust the Force…oh, and…jump!" The two leaped into the air as soon as the droids started shooting. They each landed between two droidekas, and both Force-pushed one toward a line of battle droids, knocking them into the chasm below. When Grievous started shooting at them, Rey ducked behind the control panel as Obi-Wan used the remaining droideka's shield to block Grievous's shots. Obi-Wan pushed the droideka into Grievous and took off running, with Rey following after she had sliced into the control panel a bit with her lightsaber. More shots came at them, but they deflected them without turning around. "Now what?"
Obi-Wan's comm. chimed before he could answer her. "Obi-Wan, come in, Obi-Wan."
"Anakin, I'm afraid Grievous is on to us."
"Yeah, we noticed!" he snapped.
"We'll rendezvous back at the Twilight. The fleet must engage the Malevolence." Before Obi-Wan could finish his statement, however, the comlink was cut off.
"What happened?" Rey asked.
"They're jamming our transmissions."
Rey nodded in understanding as they ran back to the area with the trains, hearing the metallic banging that was Grievous's footsteps echo behind them. They leapt from train to train, as the cyborg followed them. They began dueling, Grievous's blue and green clashing with Obi-Wan's blue and Rey's yellow. She ignited both ends of hers, trying to knock Grievous off the train. He had to jump backward to avoid her low swipe. "Jump, Rey!" Obi-Wan called.
"What?"
"Jump!" he insisted. She huffed, turned off her lightsaber, and basically fell onto a passing train below. Obi-wan followed soon after, slicing into the train Grievous was still on as he tumbled down. They made their way into a hallway that would lead them back to their ship, but battle droids caught up with them. "There! Anakin, Padmé, and the droids!" Rey pointed straight ahead.
"Hold the ship!" Obi-Wan called, deflecting blaster bolts as they hurtled themselves into the lift they would take to the Twilight. Anakin threw some crates in the droids' path, and all of them made it onto their ship safely. "I'll contact the fleet," Obi-Wan said.
Anakin sat down to pilot. "Artoo, release the docking clamp."
The astromech did, and they were free of the Malevolence.
The ship shook as it was hit. "I think we have company…" Rey observed.
"Time for some clever tricks, Anakin," Obi-Wan said.
"That's what I was thinking," he answered.
"Just so long as those 'clever tricks' don't involve crashing, I agree," Rey said, holding on to the back of Obi-Wan's seat. The Republic ships ahead began to fire on the Malevolence, as the Twilight shook again. "You know, we have guns! You can shoot back anytime!" Anakin snapped to Obi-Wan.
"I was just about to-"
"I've got it," Padmé interrupted.
"I'll help," Rey said, and the two girls started destroying the droid fighters.
"For a Senator, Padmé seems to know her way around," Obi-Wan said.
Several minutes later, Padmé absolutely obliterated a fighter closing in.
"Nice shot, Senator!"
"Beginner's luck," she responded.
Rey snorted. "Yeah, Padmé, we saw you on Geonosis; you're not a beginner at shooting anything."
Artoo beeped, and Threepio translated for them, "Pardon me, sir, but Artoo's scan on the enemy ship shows that their hyperdrive is activating."
"Don't worry about it," Anakin answered.
"What?" Obi-Wan asked in shock.
"That had better mean that you did something on there," Rey replied.
"Let's just say, I did."
The Malevolence turned toward the moon and jumped into hyperspace, soon crashing into it. Rey distantly noted that the last enemy fighter, presumably the one containing Grievous, jumped to hyperspace. Obi-Wan turned toward Anakin. "I imagine that's the 'something' you did?"
"All part of the plan, Master," he responded with a smile. They flew back into the hanger of the cruiser, preparing to go back home.