Chapter 2:
Ranma sighed as she looked at the catch she had spinning over her fire, it was some sort of cat-lizard and honestly didn't look all that appetizing. The stomach curdling appearance was most likely because she had somehow managed to not just pulverize the poor things head almost into nothingness, but ki claws had formed around her fist mid swing, resulting in her demolishing the thing's ribcage. She turned the spit slowly, hoping that it would end up tasting better than it looked.
Something blipped, for lack of a better term, on her senses and she could feel a large number of life signatures, three of them stronger than the others, all coming towards her. It confused her because it felt to her like they were high above her. She abandoned her fire and cooking meat to look up, and what she saw astonished her. Two small grey triangles were coming closer to her. Her eyes widened in shock and surprise at the sight above her. Her mind's eye quickly focused on the three strongest signatures to try and determine if they meant her harm or not, and if they were willing to help her, what kind of food they had.
Anakin started and looked at Obi-wan, "From this distance, master?"
Obi-wan nodded, "Indeed."
Admiral Yularen glanced over at the two jedi, "Is something wrong?"
Ahsoka piped up, "We have been spotted."
The Admiral raised an eyebrow, "We are in a couple of gigantic floating triangles in the sky of the planet below us."
Obi-wan chuckled, "Sorry, Admiral, bad terminology. The being we have been sent to collect felt us almost the moment we jumped into the system, and now it is heavily scrutinizing us three Jedi to see if we mean it any harm."
Anakin nodded, "Though I get a sense that it is hungry and hoping we have food."
Ahsoka sighed, "Something is weird about it though. It seems to be some sort of well of Living Force energy that isn't directly connected to the Unifying Force."
The Admiral raised an eyebrow at Obi-wan, and the Jedi Master sighed, "In simple terms the Living Force is a combination of the energy within living things and the Unifying Force is the rest of the Universe's energy. To feel this amount of living force in a single being is highly unusual. The highest amount I have ever felt is Anakin over here and if he is a very bright candle, then that thing down there is a roaring forest fire."
The Admiral sucked in a deep breath, "I do not like the sound of that. You two better know what you are doing."
Before anything else could happen alarms started blaring as three ships burst into the system, and there was someone on the new ships who ended up subjected to the same treatment as the Jedi. His reaction was fairly obvious considering before the Republic Ships could get their fighters into position the enemy had started an all-out orbital bombardment of the area where the being was. The anger pulsed into the force and the being suddenly lashed out with beams of living force energy that negated the power of the orbital bombardment shots that were going to come too close for comfort. The Jedi felt that somehow despite the intense anger the being was still solidly entrenched in the light side of the force.
Their shock was overcome by the Admiral yelling in their faces, "WHAT ARE YOUR ORDERS?!"
Anakin's mind snapped into combat mode first, "Launch all fighters and target those cruisers while their attention is still on the planet below."
Obi-wan nodded, "Me and Anakin will hop into a gunship and go to the planet's surface to see if we can't rescue the being down there. Be prepared for an intense shoot out."
Obi-wan and Anakin were about to take off out of the command bridge, when Ahsoka piped up, "What about me, masters?"
Anakin called over his shoulder, "Stay here with Admiral Yularen and try to keep the fighters going where they are needed."
Ahsoka sighed, as she watched them run out of the room with Commander Cody and Captain Rex not far behind. She saw Admiral Yularen also sigh, and she just knew it was because he thought he was stuck with her. She was pouting slightly as she looked at the battle readout in front of her to see if she could make sense of it.
Ranma was angry. She was being shot at from space by an extremely grumpy person who wished her harm. She wished he or she would come down here so she could kick his or her butt back into space without his or her spaceship. She gathered energy into her hand again and shot it at another laser beam/plasma bolt thing headed towards her, detonating it in mid-air. She could feel the shock of all the living beings that were somehow aware of what she was doing, but it seemed to tick off the grumpy one even more. She was surprised that she could even see them, let alone feel them considering they were still most likely outside of the planet's atmosphere.
She watched as bright little lights started to pass between the two sets of ships and wondered what it was they were fighting about. She also saw some other ships start to get bigger. The closest thing she could think of when looking at them was a winged Hippo. She was startled to realize that two of the strong and nice presences were on those ships, and in fact all the presences coming towards her were human. She watched as they circled over the small clearing she had found herself in, probably trying to figure out if it was worth it to land there, when even more ships came darting in, these ones reminding her somewhat of blue crabs. Laser fire started going everywhere, and she could feel the panic of some of the humans in the hippo-ships. Though her time and planet wasn't as advanced she could tell that the crab-ships were some sort of robot due to their lack of life on board.
She poured ki into her legs and launched herself at one of the crab-ships. It was obvious the thing had no clue what had happened. She used it as a platform to stand on and lashed out with more beams of ki-energy. At least 10 of the 20 crab-ships exploded from her attacks, and the rest were destroyed by weapons fire from the shocked, but professional, humans in the hippo-ships. She punched her hand into the crab-ship she was standing on, destroying its head and central processing unit, and then she jumped onto the wing of the nearest hippo-ship. A door in its side opened up, and she saw a number of white-armored men standing in there. She saw the only man who went without a helmet beckoning to her and shouting something she couldn't understand. She could feel his intent though…
Obi-wan so wanted to gape at the little girl in rags hanging onto the wing of his ship, but he knew it wasn't the time for that. He beckoned to her and called, "Come in, and we will get you to safety."
He could see no recognition of Basic in her eyes, and thought, That's not good. She seemed to be able to sense his intent though and leaped into the ship, somehow managing to keep a hold of her stick with some rags on it. Rags that Obi-wan noticed where identical in design to the ones she was currently covering herself with. They looked to him to have been pretty good quality clothes, but something had caused them to rip to shreds. He carefully studied the girl as he ordered the pilot to take off, and came to the conclusion that she wasn't of any known species that he was aware of, though it was obvious there was some relation to humans in her ancestry.
He clicked his com-link, "We got her, Anakin. Admiral, be ready to leave the moment we arrive."
Anakin's voice came over the com-link, "Her?"
Obi-wan partially shouted to be heard over the laser fire, "Yes, the person we have come to collect is a little girl. If she were human I would guess her to be maybe 5 years-old, but she feels much older than that despite her size."
Admiral Yularen's voice was heard next, "So she will be in Ahsoka's care once you get her on board then, but as you said earlier, I don't think the Separatists will be willing to let her go without a fight."
Obi-wan nodded, "Me and Anakin will hop in our fighters the moment we arrive. Ahsoka, meet us in the hanger when we get there."
Anakin's voice crackled mischievously over the com-link before Ahsoka could make her agreement or disagreement known, "I thought you hated flying, master?"
Obi-wan rolled his eyes, "Only yours my former Padawan. Ahsoka, be very careful to not patronize her. Despite her size and looks I get the feeling she is easily around the same age as Anakin."
Ahsoka sighed, "Understood, master. Is there anything else I should do?"
Obi-wan hummed for a second and winced when a blast came a little too close to the ship for comfort, "Get her some food and clothing and then take her to the med-bay so the droid can run some tests on her for potential health issues, and run a midi-chlorian test on her."
Obi-wan practically heard Anakin's smile, "Maybe her being here will get the council off my back."
Obi-wan nodded, "I hope so as well, my friend."
He knew Ahsoka paused in carrying out her orders because she said, "What are you talking about?"
Obi-wan quickly spoke up, "Nothing you need to worry about, Ahsoka. Get to the docking bay so you can intercept us, oh and bring a protocol droid with you so we can possibly get some communication going between us."
Ranma watched in curiosity as the brown haired man talked into some sort of cylindrical device in his hand, and she could neither understand what was being said by him or by his companions. She sighed, the impressions she was getting off the brown-haired man when his attention was on something about her were a mixture of kindness, confusion, and worry. She couldn't get much off of that other than no harm was going to befall her. Not knowing the language was giving her uncomfortable flashbacks to her father's stupidity at Jusenkyo, and she would rather not have a repeat of that happen. So she resolved to quickly learn their language by any means necessary.
She could feel them moving away from the life on the planet below her and towards the life on the ships ahead of her, and that coincidentally meant she was getting closer to the grumpy person. She smirked and sent a mental pulse that carried the concept of smugness in his direction. This was apparently the wrong thing to do considering she heard the pilot of the hippo-ship start screaming what she assumed were these people's version of obscenities as the ship dodged and weaved like a drunken sailor, and based on what glimpses she could catch from her limited view point if he hadn't than all the crab-ships in space would have either run into them or plugged them full of holes.
She felt the hand of the brown-haired man on her shoulder, and she saw in his expression and felt in his aura his disapproval and exasperation. Based on the other powerful presence in the ship next to them being slightly mirthful she guessed that that was something the brown-haired man was used to by association with his counterpart that she hadn't seen yet. She smirked at him, and mentally pushed her smugness towards him as well.
She saw his sigh and the way he rubbed his temple with his other hand and she barely kept herself from giggling at the display. She narrowed her eyes and became introspective, and she figured that she had spent too long in too young a body if she had started feeling the need to giggle. She could feel the curiosity radiating from the man currently towering over her, and that just caused her some irritation cause with no one around she had forgotten how much she disliked being short and how much it is technically a weakness despite her having greater than her former amount of strength and speed even at her current size.
She felt as they seemed to be quickly enveloped by a large number of living beings. She surmised that they had made it aboard the giant space ship. The doors of the ship she was on slid open and she saw a girl standing there who was most definitely not human. Unless she painted her skin orange and glued her hair into solid blue and white flesh horn things. She felt the brown-haired man push her forward slightly and stopped taking notice of her non-human features enough to see that she was in what Ranma would call some sort of bizarre bathing suit. Her legs were covered by some sort of brown leggings, boots, and a skirt, but all she had on top was a strip of fabric covering her breasts.
The girl beckoned her over and though she could feel some agitation from the girl, though none of it was directed at her. She watched as the two other strong presences hopped into a pair of what she guessed were star-fighters considering their similarities to Earth Fighter Jet Planes. She raised an eyebrow at the girl next to her, and all she got was a shrug and the girl saying something while miming eating food. Even without Ranma's current ability to feel intentions to a degree it was easy for her to understand what was being said.
She nodded, "I am definitely hungry."
She saw the girl turn to the robot next to her, [Could you understand any of that?]
The robot spoke the same language back to the girl, [Somewhat, it is similar to ancient Mando'a.]
The girl raised an eyebrow at the robot, [How ancient we talking here?]
The robot gestured at nothing, [The absolute earliest form of Mando'a in my records. Unfortunately I was only given languages to speak and not their entire history.]
The girl gestured at her, [What did she say?]
The robot also gestured at her, [After allowing for some accent and potential outside influence variations, I believe she said that she was hungry.]
The girl smiled, and Ranma could feel relief flowing off her in waves, [Tell her that I will get her some food after we get her cleaned up, clothed, and cleared from the medical bay.]
When the robot almost perfectly spoke Japanese Ranma was astonished, and asked, "Are you some sort of translator robot?"
The robot seemed to sigh, "The technical term be protocol droid, and it rather hard to speech with thou. You native converse be similar to ancient form of converse we have, but there be incredible different."
Ranma smiled, "That is a relief, and I can tell. Your word choice and grammar is all over the place."
The robot nodded, "As I language with thou, I will be better at it, unless you wish to learning our converse than be no trouble."
Ranma nodded, "I think I'll do that. Tell her thank you, and can you ask her if she can bring clothes more like what the brown-haired guy was wearing. I want to return to my proper size sooner rather than later and her clothes just aren't going to fit me."
The girl looked at the droid, [Well?]
The droid nodded to her, [There are unfortunately differences between the language in my databanks and hers, but there is enough similarity that I can understand what she is trying to get across to you. She says, "Thank you," I believe. She seemed to want some of Master Kenobi's robes.]
The girl raised her eyebrow, [Why would she want those?]
The droid paused for a second, [If I am translating it right, she is implying that she is some sort of shape-shifter and that her true size is closer to Master Kenobi than you.]
The girl furrowed her brows in confusion, [That would explain Master Kenobi's impression of her being older than she looks.] Ranma watched as the girl knelt and held out a hand saying, "Ahsoka."
Ranma smiled, easily realizing what was going on, and she reached out her hand and shook the currently larger girl's hand, "Ranma."
Ahsoka smiled and looked at the droid, [I am guessing that was her name?]
The droid nodded, [Yes, though there is something odd going on here.]
Ahsoka raised an eyebrow, [Oh?]
The droid looked at the one it was translating for, [If I am translating it right, that is a male name and it means "Chaos' Stallion."]
Ahsoka looked between the two in confusion, and then she shook it off and motioned for Ranma and the droid to follow her, [Anyway, let's get her to the med-bay so the doc-bot can check her out.]
The droid bowed and said, [As you wish.]
Ranma followed behind both of them, keeping an eye on her surroundings, cause if there was one thing she had learned it was that even if the ones with authority mean you no harm, it doesn't mean that their underlings felt the same way. It also didn't help that it felt like there was something malignant inside each of the soldiers' heads.