This is by far the longest chapter I have ever written. I usually only get up to max ten pages on the google doc, but this was a full eleven. Definitely a long climax for the fic, even tho it's, like, at the end. Not over, but the next chapter will probably be pretty short. I just need to tie some stuff together, give y'all a satisfying ending (hopefully lmao)
You know I never thought I would learn about the possibility of Putin resigning from memes about a show I don't even watch, but here we are. Memes are somehow how I learn about current events now, this is a flawed system help me
Disclaimer: I do not own Star Wars. If I did, I would have seen the Mandalorian chapter 10 by now.
Chapter Ten: The prisoners: I will see you there. And by will, I mean won't! BA!
Ki-Adi Mundi walked stealthily through the halls of the Separatist frigate. His ship had managed to avoid the blaster fire of the vulture droids swarming their fighters, making its way to the target. They had docked and entered, the pilot detaching from the flagship once everyone was inside. Staying would only let the droids and Dooku know where the group had entered and track them down.
The Jedi was pleased that the halls were tall, he didn't want to be banging the top of his rather large head against anything. Not only would it hurt and disorient him, it would make noise. That was a big no-no when your primary goal was to sneakily liberate prisoners, not launch a full-scale assault.
He was leading a small group of ten troopers on this mission, necessary backup though it made the stealth part more difficult. The group had not yet encountered droids in the ten minutes they had been aboard the frigate, but he was sure their luck would run out soon.
The General arrived at a crossroads, signaling for the clones behind him to halt. He stuck his tall head out and looked both ways as if he was planning to cross the street, finding them deserted. The group continued, taking a left. They were searching for the detention level, but they would have to take a turbolift. That would prove difficult, seeing as they couldn't all fit in one, but risks needed to be taken sometimes.
As they walked down the new hall, the distant sound of clankers reached their ears, it would not be long before they caught up. Ki-Adi looked around for somewhere to hide, seeing an open door. The group scrambled to get in on time, hoping that the droids didn't need to enter the nearly bare room. Soon the B-1s passed the doorway, and a snippet of conversation could be heard.
"The Jedi are in hangar I-9!"
"I know that, that's why we're headed that way!"
The Master felt his eyebrows rise. He was only one Jedi, and nobody had been alerted to their presence. Clearly, the droids meant the very people he was here to save. As the sound of their running faded, the General turned to his men and said, "I think we know where to find them."
The group moved out, following the path they had seen taken moments ago. It was time to get those Jedi.
Ahsoka coughed into her elbow, a bit of steam and smoke entering her lungs. The practice of coughing like that had been taught to her as a youngling, a simple little habit to help prevent the spreading of germs. Of course, it was rare that she could give anyone else in the temple an ailment that had befallen her and the technique was mainly meant for the many humans, but that didn't mean she'd stopped.
She'd been scouring the ship's innards to find whatever it was that wasn't letting them take off, and a lack of proper equipment had her lungs burning and eyes streaming. Pipes that were hot to the touch occasionally burned her, adding to the preexisting myriad of injuries on her body. Various gases (none of them deadly) had been rising from vents and puffing machines in a steady rhythm, clogging her throat and getting in her eyes. She missed her goggles, her eyes stung.
The Commander crawled along the metal grate meant for the maintenance she was currently attempting to perform with no tools and safety equipment, opening a panel to examine the wires. Her Master was currently scouring the cockpit and general rooms of the transport for problems while his smaller padawan struggled to find issues in the thing's innards. Finding the wiring to be perfect, she moved on and crawled over to a board of switches. Examining the labels written in aurebesh, she was able to determine that these switches controlled the ventilation system. This meant breathable air circulation and the vapors needed to feed the engine, medical systems, and general power to the ship. Further examination showed that the pattern of switches looked normal, but the bursts of smoke hitting her constantly were not.
The teen frowned and leaned back. Air was supposed to be circulating through the flight regulators at intervals of four minutes, but they were moving in sporadic bursts that would leave the engines unstable. That kind of thing would cause the ship to refuse to take off, explaining why they were stuck on this frigate. She tried flipping the switch that controlled it, but it wouldn't move. The little piece of metal was completely stuck, and shoving it any harder would snap it off completely. She needed to consult her Master.
The togruta moved to turn around, accidentally banging her montrals on a (thankfully medium-temperature) pipe. "Kriff!"
Anakin heard her and yelled, "Language!"
She winced, one hand rubbing her throbbing horn-like organs while the other provided support for crawling. "Sorry!"
She made it to the entrance to the actual ship, another gust of vapour making her cough, and heaved herself out of that hot, smoky pit. Wiping her eyes with the back of her mostly clean hand, she announced, "I have found the problem."
Anakin grinned. "That's good. Is it fixed?"
She grimaced. "It's not exactly fixable."
"What?"
She told him about the switch that was stuck in place, explaining the ventilation issue and how that stupid piece of metal was stopping them from freedom. As she was finishing, Obi-Wan rushed inside, Rex also taking refuge inside. The two Jedi looked up and he explained, "Droids."
Oh no. There was nowhere to run, and a look out the cockpit window revealed an assortment of regular and super battle droids. There were enough to make them nervous, considering the lack of lightsabers and only one blaster being in their possession. They needed to get some from a droid, and quickly.
The group of CIS infantry marched steadily towards the lone ship, they clearly knew they were inside. Ahsoka cursed, starting up the ship had likely alerted the Seppies to their location. The ship had clearly been remotely disabled, there was no way they were leaving this place without help.
As the droids drew nearer, almost upon the ship now, Rex leaned into the doorway and fired three shots, wildly aimed but hitting two droids. He returned to cover hastily, and Anakin reached out a hand. The blasters from the felled droids flew into the ship with a loud crash, and he and Obi-Wan each picked one up. The teenage girl wanted out the viewport as a few more droids were shot down, all of them stopping and opening fire. Realizing what was going to happen if they didn't move out of the way, she yelled, "There's enough fire coming from the clankers that this whole ship could explode! We need to get out of here before we're all blown to smithereens!"
They all heard her and moved out of the doorway. The Commander took a step towards their only exit and repeated a mantra in her mind. I am one with the Force and the Force is with me. She sprinted out of the ship, calling on the Force for some extra speed, and sent out a Force-push that knocked over a wave of droids. She dove behind a stack of crates for non-combustible cover, blaster bolts flying overtop and sizzling into her cover. Anakin and Obi-Wan were next, joining her as she summoned a blaster, but as the Captain ran out of the ship, more battle droids got within range.
A blaster shot sounded and the padawan screamed as he fell to the ground.
"Sir! A ship tried to take off in hangar I-9! We sent an attack group there."
Count Dooku turned and walked off the bridge without a word to the confused droid. So his prey was there. Skywaljker was very proficient at mechanics, he would certainly do his best to fix the ship they attempted to take. It would only be a matter of time before he found out about the remote controls, making him powerless to fix the issue. Every transport was locked down remotely, ventilation control completely disabled. This would cause the engines to shut down, making the ships unable to become airborne.
He strode down the hallway with purpose, hoping that the droids didn't scare off his prisoners. It would be quite a bother to have to find them again if they left that hangar, he really should have put chips in them or something at the start of their capture. That would definitely have shortened this process insurmountably, reducing the headache that came back every time he had to deal with Skywalker's shenanigans. If he wasn't an incredible duelist he'd think that Jedi would be the death of him.
Passing a small group of battle droids on patrol, he glared at them. They all cowered, moving faster in the other direction. Pathetic. These units were cowards, they surrendered to Republic forces all the time when in small numbers. Sadly, they were the best option for ground soldiers at the moment.
Dooku thought back to Ventress' failure with the Toydarian King on a moon of Rugosa. He had sent more than enough battle droids, but his former Master's cunning had always been insufferable. He had led three clones against a full 100 battle droids and won, coming to gloat just in time for Ventress to be pathetically humiliated in front of the King. She had been thoroughly punished, and he had once again questioned the droids. But alas, they did their job well enough.
The Sith lord took a few turbolifts, walking with the speed of a man as straight as his lightsaber hilt, and finally arrived at the blast doors to the hangar. He had made good time, the Force aiding his quick walk, and kept his cool when he opened the door with a wave of his hand.
Inside were the remnants of battle droids, their parts scattered in the hangar. There was also a medium-size transport and a stack of crates, but something far more important was in front of it. His escaped prisoners, the Jedi hunched over the clone.
He announced, "Well, well, well. I've finally found you. Would you like to come quietly, or should I call on reinforcements?"
Anakin stood up immediately at the sound of Dooku's voice, blaster raised instinctually. Rex was lying on the ground, injured but not dead. The blaster bolt had struck the side of his abdomen, missing organs but leaving a wicked gauge that would've killed him were it not cauterized. He couldn't fight any more droids, that could end up tearing it and making him bleed out. Ahsoka and Obi-Wan were still hunched over him, tearing strips from the togruta's already small skirt to bandage the wound with just in case. It would be too difficult to tear the Zygerrian armour the men all wore, so she was sacrificing what meager cover she had.
The Jedi raised his blaster, aiming at the man ahead. They had not come this far just to be thwarted again. Stalling, he said, "It was clever of you to order the ships disabled. Kept us on this bucket of bolts." He wasn't sure what exactly he was stalling for, he just knew that the Force wanted him to wait. It was urging him to draw this out, something was going to happen soon.
The Count replied, "I appreciate it, but flattery will not get you anywhere. A squadron of droids is headed this way, you will not last long against them without your lightsabers. Especially with that dead weight." He gestured to the Captain, the clone grimacing in pain as he tried to sit up. Ahsoka pushed him back down. She wasn't finished tying a bandage around his blaster wound.
The General was sure that the droids weren't what he was waiting on, he had to be patient. "I'm sure you heard the story of Master Yoda taking on a hundred droids by himself, with three clones as backup. There's three of us, do the math."
Dooku actually rolled his eyes. "Your lightsabers are not in your possession, Skywalker. You would be destroyed in seconds."
As the indignant Jedi was about to respond, the blast doors opened again. On the threshold stood someone completely unexpected yet very welcome. Ki-Adi Mundi ignited his lightsaber and raised it in a challenge.
All of them turned to face him. The escapees had hope in their eyes, the Republic had come to save them at last! Ahsoka had to hold back a sob, these last couple of weeks had been hell. The chance to get away, the actual opportunity presented on a silver platter in the form of the long-headed man before them, was enough to almost move her to tears. Rex was relieved as well, a smile forming on his face. Obi-Wan grinned, having the same desire as the rest to get off this ship. The reinforcements Anakin and Rex had called for were here; they were saved.
Ki-Adi held his lightsaber in ready position, the troopers behind him taking aim. They would not engage Dooku until the battle was underway so as not to be easily destroyed by returned blaster bolts. He was a skilled duelist, his prowess with a lightsaber not easily overlooked. It would not be a fight the Jedi could win, he just had to get to the Republic soldiers he was rescuing and get them out.
"Hello, Count," he began. "I see you anticipated my arrival."
Ahsoka was confused. What did that mean?
The Sith lord ignited his own lightsaber. "I hope you enjoyed my welcome party."
What welcome party? It seemed only Ki-Adi and Dooku had any idea what was going on, the foursome in the hangar a little confused. How could the Seppies have known about the transmission, they had wiped all traces of it! Clearly, something had gone wrong.
More clones emerged from behind the Jedi General, aiming their blaster rifles at Dooku. He backed away, but it did not seem to be in cowardice or fear. He was simply moving to a more strategic and advantageous position, a place from which he could deflect all the blaster bolts or take on Ki-Adi without fear of being shot. He appeared to be waiting for something, perhaps stalling so that he wasn't full autoed and obliterated. That's what Anakin would do.
The Separatist's hand moved to his lightsaber hilt, slowly so as not to invite aggression, but obvious enough that everyone noticed it and became more aware. A fight was coming, and at the moment it looked like he would lose. That was quickly changed when the sound of clanking became loud. The clones turned to see commando droids bounding towards them, doing their unnecessary flips and tricks. Both parties opened fire, Dooku engaging Master Mundi. Anakin and Obi-Wan both began to run towards the action, like usual, the padawan being forced to stay back to take care of Rex. She didn't mind too much, her skills with a blaster were not nearly as impactful as her prowess with her blades.
On the note of her lightsabers, the teen speculated that she may need to complete another Gathering for new crystals. Hers weren't exactly available at that moment, she would likely not be getting them back. She should ask her Master what she'd do, he always needed to replace his lightsaber. Maybe they'd just give her a new one? Unlikely. She wouldn't have the same bond with it as one she had crafted herself.
A wild blaster shot barely missing her head snapped her to reality, the chaos so far from her yet dangerously close. The Captain was trying to sit up again, so she propped him against a crate. He held back his groan, pressing a flat hand against the strip of her dress on his side. The blaster bolt had taken a chunk out of him, nothing lethal or too serious but painful as kriff. He would need several hours in the bacta tank to recover. He said, "Don't worry about me, Commander. Go scrap some tinnies, we need all the soldiers we can get."
She didn't need to be told twice. The togruta hefted her blaster and took aim, calling upon all of her sharpshooting training with Rex.
"Good," he said. "Feel the weight of it in your hands, balanced and steady. Set your feet." He corrected her footwork, giving a nod of approval when she had it right.
She took aim, staring intently down the sight at her target. She called upon the Force, letting it flow through her in a steady hum. It seemed to move her blaster, adjusting the barrel to be slightly more to the left. She pressed down on the trigger and the bolt shot free, knocking the target off its perch. A normal blaster would've incinerated the thing, but this one was for target practice and only caused small stuns and some impact force.
The Captain snorted. "You used the Force. Troopers like me don't have fancy tricks to make our shots hit."
She smirked. "If you had an advantage, you would use it too. Besides, what harm can a little help do?"
The teenager smiled at the memory, a moment from when she was still fourteen and a new addition to the 501st. Calling upon that training, she stared down the sight at a commando sprinting at an unaware trooper, taking deadly aim, she fired. It hit the droid straight in the head, effectively dismantling it. She could only shoot like that when she was uncontested, like right now. It took a lot of focus, and she was pretty open. That's why she didn't hear the Captain's warnings about the commando sneaking up behind her.
She barely reacted in time, the shot she was lining up going wide as she turned to face her adversary. Ahsoka was barely in fighting position when the hand that was supposed to snap her neck caught her in the face. This droid had clearly lost its blaster, but that didn't mean it couldn't fight. She stumbled back, dropping her blaster, but caught the metal arm aimed at her stomach and threw the commando behind her. It stumbled and then righted itself, throwing a kick that she barely dodged. She again grabbed its foot, but the thing was ready for her. She was flung onto the floor by the withdrawn limb, the second one stepping hard on her back. She yelled out in pain, the harsh blow definitely leaving a bruise. It was a wonder the togruta rolled out of the way before her head was cracked open by the second stomp, the Force being her aid as she leapt to her feet.
The padawan squared up with the droid again, breathing hard and bruised. Her blaster was still on the floor, but it had been kicked away by the scuffle. She reached out her arm to summon it, but her focus was obliterated by more attacks from the commando. They traded punches and kicks, the Commander finally coming to her senses after a rough blow from the droid. She needed to create space so she could summon her blaster and shoot the thing. Calling upon the Force, she backflipped several feet away, landing in a crouch. the blaster was immediately pulled to her hand, allowing her to shoot the commando's face at point-blank just in time.
She slumped to the floor to catch her breath.
Padme sat on her couch with her head in her hands. Anakin had been on his mission for weeks, he should've been back by now. She couldn't ask the Jedi about him, as far as they were aware he was merely her friend, and she probably wasn't even supposed to know about his mission to Zygerria. Slavery was tricky, she had sent Sabe to free Ani's mother but that had been unsuccessful. She had tried to join antislavery committees, but Palpatine himself had forbidden it. She felt helpless, and in a way it was her fault that Anakin's mother had died. She had been too late to free her, too late to help so many slaves.
C3-PO had assured the Senator that everything was alright, that her husband was safe. She knew that missions could be complicated, especially those involving people as tricky as the Zygerrians, but something gnawed at her, a feeling that things were not okay. Ani was in trouble, but she was helpless. Again.
He could take care of himself, he was a Jedi after all, but that didn't mean bad things couldn't happen. Zygerria was a powerful planet, the high-ranking scum on it having amassed much wealth. They were likely a high-priority planet for the Separatists, providing much money for their cause. What if Anakin had been discovered and swarmed with battle droids, killed on his mission, what if- no. The Nabooian admonished herself for going down that road with her thoughts. She needed to stay strong, he put himself in danger all the time. This was war; he was always going to be in a position to get hurt. She would be useless as a senator if every long mission he went on tore her to pieces.
Padme stood from the couch, dress swirling around her. She walked over to her office and decidedly got to work.
Ahsoka got to her feet, a hand on her back. That commando had really done a number on her, she was sore all over. Turning to Rex, she let out a sigh of relief when she saw he was unharmed, aside from the preexisting injury. He was clearly far more worried about his vod'ika, looking her over for injuries.
"I thought you were a goner, Commander," he said. His voice was cheerful, but that was a facade to hide how truly scared for her he'd been. She sat next to him.
"I can take a few hits, Rexter. I can't believe you had such little faith in me."
Her tone was light and airy, but she really had been close to death. That droid had almost snapped her neck, barely missing its opportunity to smash her head. It had been a close fight.
The clone asked, "Are you gonna get back into the battle?"
"I don't think they need me right now."
Looking across the room, he could see she was right. The commandos were all destroyed, Ki-Adi having engaged the Count in lightsaber combat. Everyone with a blaster had been attempting to get behind him to shoot his back, but so far the only clones who had tried were lying dead, their shots returned with lethal aim. Things were looking like they might turn out well, but the end was not near. A Force-push sent Ki-Adi Mundi flying backwards, and Dooku pressed a button on his wrist. Everyone opened fire, but the Sith just jumped away.
As everyone caught their breath, the blast doors opened to reveal ten droidekas and a squadron of Super Battle droids. Their reinforcements began to fall back, the only Jedi armed with a lightsaber deflecting as many shots as he could to cover them. This operation was going downhill.
Everyone took cover behind the crates, Ahsoka dragging her charge ("I can get there myself!") over to them.
"Hey, Skyguy! Things are going just great."
He snorted. "Yep! Absolutely perfect!"
Master Mundi joined everyone behind their meager cover, the clones still taking shots at the enemy. A trooper was felled by a droideka and toppled to the floor, motionless. The Jedi tapped something on his wrist, a commlink. He shouted above the roar of battle. "We need evac, now! I have located the prisoners, we are in hangar bay I-9!"
With the message finished, he leapt up and began to defend their position. Taking that as their cue, both Master and apprentice began to fire at the Super Battle droids. Dooku was hanging behind the battle, not being one to get his hands dirty unnecessarily. He merely watched, stone faced, as his droids were cut down. They were taking out some clones, but the metal soldiers were falling in higher quantities.
Obi-Wan paused his assault of blaster shots to assess their escape plan. An evac was coming, likely in the form of a ship. The issue? The hangar doors that opened into space were closed. The metal doors were over the opening, so there was no chance for a ship to get through. He scanned the hangar, searching for something to control the opening. After a moment, his eyes zeroed in on a panel near the closed door, their last chance at freedom.
He tapped his grand-padawan on the shoulder, getting her attention. "Ahsoka, I need you to open up the hangar doors, the ones to space. Leave the rayshield on, but get the blast doors open."
She nodded, and he pointed at the control panel. The togruta darted away, using her acrobatics training to avoid the blaster bolts aimed her way. None of the droidekas seemed to care about her, so that was taking some of the stress of dodging bolts off a little. She sprinted as hard as she could, stealing some glances over her shoulder to make sure she wasn't being followed. Dooku seemed to be surveying the battle as a whole, she was too far away to be of his concern now. The Commander's mad dash finally came to a halt when she arrived breathless at the console. It had several buttons, the display was quite complicated. She squinted at it as if that would help, staring at it as if aurebesh labels would suddenly appear.
She decided to start guessing. If this was laid out like any other console, the controls would be in the same spots. She gingerly pressed a button, and the blue rayshield she had been instructed to add popped up. The teenager let out a small whoop, overjoyed at this tiny victory. She had to remind herself that this was far from finished, and the actual door needed to be taken down. Now.
She examined the controls again. If she was right, it would be a button near the left. Feeling incredibly stressed like a character in a holofilm who needed to disarm a bomb at the end of its countdown, she clicked the button. The blast door over the hangar opening came sliding back into the ship, and she truly yelled in celebration. This was ill-advised, as a droid's blaster shot barely missed her head. Now she was a sitting duck, and the droidekas saw her again.
The blasters started firing and she leaped a great distance away from her position, halving the distance between her and the cover the crates provided. That did not make her immune, and blaster bolts struck the ground at her feet as she sprinted to safety. One front hand-spring and she was in the clear, having used the Force to greatly boost her range.
Master Obi-Wan looked at her with approval. "Good job, Ahsoka."
The blast doors seemed to have been opened just in time, as a Republic gunship transport zoomed into the hangar. It opened fire on the droids, demolishing the droidekas but missing most B-2s. The pinned-down Republic soldiers took this as their cue to leave their cover, sprinting to the gunship that had now landed, Ki-Adi Mundi covering their flank. A couple of shots took out some droids, lightening the Jedi's load. The dash to safety was not far, but it felt like forever. Ahsoka's blood was pounding in her head, all of the pain from her injuries gone in the rush of adrenaline. It was forever and yet no time at all before she reached the gunship, everyone clambering inside. As the doors shut, she could see Dooku barking orders into a commlink, but they make it out of the hangar unscathed.
The nightmare was finally over when they reached the Republic ship that had been sent as reinforcements.
End of chapter!
Notes:
-phew that was a wild ride
-only one more chapter after this aaah
-the mission, the nightmares- they're finally over
-Well Dooku time for u to suffer ig. Fuck u
-Ahsoka said tech savvy
-i hope that last stretch wasn't two rushed, i kinda crushed two sections into one bc i had already written like eight pages of stuff and I'm writing this on Thursday, I have to do the editing tomorrow
-Padme is stressed but she cant fall to pieces she is a strong woman she dont need no man
-poor rex had to like be half dragged with that huge wound akdjfhlkjf mans needs a break
Tune in next week for Chapter Eleven!