Have no fear, Grubkiller is here.
Hey folks. This was originally supposed to be a short story called. But ever since I released it, I've so many ideas to add to it that I just had to expand on it. This is my updated version of After the War. It follows Ahsoka in the time right after Order 66, on the run from the Empire.
Please enjoy this prologue chapter.
Disclaimer: I do not own Star Wars. It was created by George Lucas, and is currently owned by Darth Disney. Some of the material is inspired by E.K. Johnston's Ahsoka novel from 2016.
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Coruscant burned.
Not all of it, of course, but enough that the smoke filled the air around her, even in the tunnels below the surface, connecting 500 Republica to the Works. Ahsoka Tano breathed it in. She knew what she had to do, but wasn't sure it would work. Worse, she wasn't sure many of her men were going to make it out either way.
But they were out of options, and it may have been the only chance they had left. She was there with an team and a mission, as she might have done when she was still Anakin Skywalker's Padawan. It probably would have gone better if Anakin were with her.
In the wake of the erratic and mostly unintelligible messages that had reached 500 Republica regarding the Separatist's surprise attack, Captain Dyne (the Naval Intelligence agent) had considered the sub-basement to be the safest place on Coruscant. But now that the team had discovered a possible finish to the long trail they had followed from The Works, where Darth Sidious' abandoned hideout was, the building's vast underground seemed the most dangerous place to be.
With the battle raging in space, and notwithstanding Mace Windu's command to the contrary, Ahsoka and Captain Dyne had been tempted to suspend the search for Sidious's lair and report to the Intelligence division at the Naval Intel HQ on the other side of the Senate District, as he had ordered the other analysts in the group to do. But as ARC commander Valiant had pointed out, the search team's objective was as important to the war as the actions of the ships and men that were protecting Coruscant.
So, while the team waited for Intelligence to deliver additional probe droids, a search of the sub-basement had begun - admittedly superficial and somewhat desultory, but only in response to the seeming impossibility of the task. Electronically tethered to the probe droids, Dyne and the commandoes had performed imagings of some of the partitions and walls, and investigated numerous unlit hollows and recesses. The basement became a kind of microcosm for the entire war, with everyone on the team contributing separate skills.
500 Republica hadn't sustained any follow-up jolts. Ahsoka had learned that the initial jolts owed not to bombardment, but to the fall of ships destroyed at the edge of space. With thousands of cargo ships and passenger vessels arriving at Coruscant at any given moment, she could scarcely imagine the chaos upside. Secondary shocks that had rocked the building had been traced to the firing of plasma weapons concealed in hardened emplacements surrounding the building.
Ahsoka and her men were struck by the fact that the shadowy figure that they were after was quite possibly co-ordinating the attack.
But who was it, and how could they track him?
At the lead clone commando's instruction, the probe droids began to home in on any communications exchange that was occurring on eccentric frequencies. It was difficult, seeing as how surface comms were sabotaged, and the HoloNet was jammed.
But the team members were astonished to find out that the droids had led them back to where they had left off. Where the footprints of the unidentified quarry had ended. The source of an unusual frequency was originating directly beneath them. They then discovered that the ferrocrete floor panels that they thought was the end of the trail, turned out to be removable, and concealing a doorway to an secret adjacent room, which revealed a large shaft.
One of the commandoes pressed a button, and moments later, a large platform ascended from the dark bowels of the building, and came to rest with an unsettling screeching sound, which echoes up and down the shaft.
'Definitely the most dangerous place on Coruscant to be.' Ahsoka thought to herself, gripping her lightsabers more tightly, sweat moistening her palms.
The walls of the lift's shaft, which scans revealed to end about 50 meters down, were cracked and stained in places, due to years of mismanagement, or rather no management at all.
Valiant gave a hand signal, and every clone commando and shadow trooper raised their blaster carbines and moved onto the lift, checking their corners. When everyone was on the lift, another trooper pressed a button, and the lift began to descend into the depths it arose from moments ago.
"If anyone's down here," Dyne said to Ahsoka, "they're probably aware we're on the way."
Ahsoka nodded
The Spec Ops Clones didn't need to be told. Weapons enabled, they spread out into various firing positions before the lift came to a rest.
Ribboned with conduits and crowded with ancient machinery, the dismal space bore some resemblance to the tunnels and rooms they had passed through and explored since leaving the Works. But this one, Dyne told himself, was an archeologist's dream. Probably a maintenance node for buildings that had stood here in Coruscant's dim past.
Twenty meters ahead of them, flickering light lanced from the edges of a large metal door.
One of Captain Dyne's intel analysts, who had decided to stay, sent the probe droids to investigate, then studied the processor's data screen.
"One flesh-and-blood behind the door," he whispered to Ahsoka, Dyne, and Valiant.
Dyne and the clones then looked to Ahsoka. "It's your call, Commander."
Ahsoka regared the door. "We've come this far. I say we go in like we own the place." Her heart began to race, before she repeated something that Rex always said. "The mission always comes first."
Now, the weight of her lightsabers in her hands was reassuring, but she would have traded them both for Anakin's presence in a heartbeat.
The Battle of Coruscant had been raging for three days now.
Every available Republic warship had been recalled from the Outer Rim Sieges to help break the Separatist siege. Their were so many ships - thousands as a matter-o-fact - that all civilian comm chatter was overwhelmed by the unintelligible garbled mess that originated from the battle in orbit.
The Separatist attack seemed disorganized and haphazard. Almost like it was meant to cause fear and terror than actually accomplish an objective, as droid fighters deliberately smashed into buildings and droids hoards were dumped anywhere.
But then, Ahsoka decided to besiege the city, and cut it off from receiving any supplies, and used the gunships and Venators to wipe out any structure of importance, including training camps, power sub-stations, supply warehouses, and fuel depots. With much of the defenders resources and power cut off, it was time to storm the city. And storm the city they did.
Ahsoka and her men had been scouting and mapping these tunnels ever since they got here.
And now, they were nearly at the end.
500 Republica, Sub-basement.
Ahsoka and her men stepped cautiously from the platform that had dropped the team into the unexplored depths of 500 Republica. Here, at an intersection of spooky corridors made of permacrete and surfaced with panels of plasteel, no water dripped, no insects constructed hives, no conduit worms nursed on electrical current. Strangely, however, the air was stirred by a faint and fresh breeze.
Ahsoka took a breath to steady her nerves. She was trained for this. She had prepared her whole life to protect the galaxy, especially from the ancient enemy of the Jedi. But she had spent so many of the past few months away from the Order that she was afraid that her once sharp reflexes were shot.
Ahsoka readied her lightsabers.
Captain Dyne, commanding the hovering probe droids to go to stasis mode, deactivated the handheld processor and hooked it on his belt.
Drawing his Merr-Sonn blaster from his holster, he hefted it, then thumbed off the stun setting switch.
Around, ghost-like in the dismal light, the commandoes were moving toward the thick door at the end of the hall, keeping close to the walls, with weapons raised. Valiant had the point, with the squad's explosives expert close behind, a thermal detonator in hand.
Ahsoka and Dyne stepped between the powered-down pair of probe droids.
They hadn't advanced three meters down the corridor when Ahsoka's head-tails pricked up at the sound of servos whining and metal footsteps clanking.
"Did you hear that?" One of the commandoes whispered.
Seconds later, the dark, quiet corridor lit up like a fireworks display and red blaster bolts flew down the hall, striking one of the commandoes square in the faceplate. Before the dead commando hit the ground, Commander Valiant shouted 'weapons free', and the clones fired back at the figures who had attacked them.
Blue and red blaster bolts filled the air.
A pair of green and yellow lightsabers danced gracefully in the dark, deflecting any bolt that came their way.
That's when the team's explosive expert tossed an EC detonator, commonly known as a 'droid-popper', down the hall, frying all of the commando droid's circuits. With the way clear, the clone commandoes advanced down the hall, and one of them placed a small detonator on the door's locking mechanism, while the others stacked up on the walls and sides of the door.
When the detonator was primed, the commando got clear, before the rapidly beeping detonator exploded, knocking out the door's lock.
And as soon as the door started to open, revealing a room filled with blinking equipment, Ahsoka slashed away at a commando droid that was guarding the inside of the door, before impaling the other with her shoto. Another commando tossed another droid-popper into the room, electrocuting two more commando droids. That's when the Clone Shadow Troopers rushed into the room, and started firing on targets of opportunity, blasting every droid that was in the room, many of them while they were still at their seats.
When all of the droids were dead, the commandoes turned their attention to a throne-like chair, which was facing a holo-table displaying the battle taking place in orbit, which was flanked by screens with scrolling data.
The shadowy figure continued to sit in his throne with the back of it facing Ahsoka and her team, before Commander Valiant stepped forward with his dual blasters pointed at the chair, his men doing the same with their blaster rifles.
"Turn around and put your hands behind your back." Valiant ordered.
The throne-like chair rotated to reveal a human of medium height and build looking at them, smiling sinisterly. He then stood up and started cackling, the laughs echoing throughout the room.
Ahsoka and her men found themselves to be astonished.
"Hands up!" Ahsoka ordered, barring her teeth.
The figure slowly raised his hands.
"As you wish."
Suddenly, another set of doors were slammed shut behind the team by an invisible force, and two of the clones were lifted into the air, and screamed in terror as their bodies were grotesquely twisted and mangled before they died. When the bodies dropped, and to the horror of the men in the room, the figure activated a red lightsaber, illuminating the dark room.
Valiant shouted out to the top of his lungs: "OPEN FIRE!"
The room was filled and illuminated with blue blaster bolts.
But the figure merely batted them away nonchalantly and began to walk towards the clones. Two clones were killed by their own fire, and other one was levitated into the air and flew towards the shadowy figure before being sliced apart by his red lightsaber.
Ahsoka tried to re-delfect some of the fire that the figure was sending back, and then started using the force to throw loose objects at him.
But the cloaked force-user was undeterred.
As the clones continued to fight for their lives, in a manner that was considered playful by the dark figure, Captain Dyne tried to pull the door open with another clone, not because they were afraid, but because they had to warn the Jedi, which was becoming more and more futile every minute.
Dyne's probe droids started blasting at the figure, who shot lightning out of his fingertips to make them explode, sending shrapnel everywhere and throwing the clones off. The shadow then started using his lightning to make many of the clones disintegrate and vanish into ash.
Ahsoka used the force to hold back the lightning with all her might to protect what was left of the team. Valiant turned around to help Dyne and his comrade force the door open one more time.
That's when Ahsoka spared one hand to use the force and open the door, helping the men open the door to get through. She suddenly was flung backwards through the door.
Valiant and some of his men tried to help the commander.
One remaining trooper turned towards the shadow and started firing his blaster, shouting out a battle cry. The Shadow raised his hand and the trooper's blaster bolts froze in midair, before they suddenly flew back into the trooper himself, filling his armor with blaster marks.
Another trooper threw a pair of detonators at the Shadow, but the grenades froze in midair and flew back to him. But when they exploded, the Shadow used the force to contain the explosion, engulfing the trooper in a ball of fire.
The Shadow then casually stepped over the charred remains to deal with Dyne, Valiant, and their one remaining trooper.
Captain Dyne then turned around and got a shot off with his blaster bolt. But the Shadow merely deflected the shot back into his pistol, making it explode, burning his hand and filling it with metal fragments.
"GAHH!" Dyne shouted before he seethed in pain and dropped to his knees. The clones knelt down to help him.
They then looked up to see the Shadow standing over them.
"I am most impressed you managed to discover my lair. But it was all hopelessly in vain." The Shadow said, his hood and the dark room covering his features.
Sidious was about to raise his hand when suddenly, Ahsoka stood between her men and the Sith, and used the force to block the lightning, causing it arc in several directions around Ahsoka.
"Run." Ahsoka said. "All of you, RUN!"
Her few remaining men did as she said. But before they could leave the commander behind, they tossed a pair of sonic detonators into the room. The figure tossed them aside, but the detonation was still disorientating. He was distracted for just long enough for Ahsoka to escape behind the door, which shut between them.
But then, a green blade pierced the door, and began to run down the seam, melting the two halves together.
Sidious growled and shot lightning at the door.
On the other side Dyne and the clones watched with utter amazement as Ahsoka, covered in lightning as she struggled to cover their escape from the Sidious.
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Well folks, that was the prologue.
I pulled some inspiration from the Labyrinth of Evil and Ahsoka novels.
Hope you enjoyed.
Until next time, Grubkiller out.