In honor of this last chapter I propose we all drink Coke. Well at least I will, and I'm guessing Darth Gladiator45 too.
Chapter 14: Battle In Space
Preparing for a first full scale battle is like preparing to kill yourself. Everyone is scared, scared of dying, of suffering, and especially scared of the enemy. No matter how much the commanding rebels ensured their legions, squads, attack fleets or otherwise that from the battle Coruscant would be theirs and the Republic restored there was still doubt in every soldiers mind.
The preparing and planning took a full two weeks. Anakin spent that time training his children, they of course would not come but when the opportunity presented itself for training Anakin rarely passed it by.
On the last day before the battle Obi-wan entered the makeshift sparring room where he found Anakin teaching his children a lightsaber technique called Shi-Cho, the simplest form, he also saw a little Ataru in the stances of the children, Qui-Gon and Yoda's favorite.
" Anakin, they are ready. The troops have begun loading on the ships."
" Right." Anakin said turning from Obi-wan to Luke and Leia. " Bye kids, be good and don't give your mother a hard time."
" Alright dad." Luke said angling his training saber at Leia and striking. Leia of course parried her brothers attacks easily.
" Luke you are so predictable." Leia said.
" Really?" Luke said feigning and uppercut and bringing the saber down to Leia's feet. It would have been a crippling blow had the sabers been full power. Instead it stung Leia's legs and caused her to fall onto the mat. Luke had won, this time. Anakin and Obi-wan smiled as they left.
XxX
Officers on the bridge running every where making final preparations for hyper space examining each detail of the coordinates over and over again was enough to make Anakin laugh. Not loudly of course though even if he had he doubted anyone would notice except Obi-wan who seemed to notice anyway.
" Anakin, they don't want any accidents, this battle is big it decides the fate of the whole galaxy, they don't want to be the ones to mess it up." Obi-wan said somewhat sternly as the ships lurched into hyper space making the crew breath a sigh of relief.
" Yep Obi-wan, I know what you mean."
" Glad to hear it."
" Yep, just another typical battle, one that you'll be fighting with that lightsaber."
" Anakin, I haven't had enough time."
" Really, what about the week you were out of the planning stuff and I was in, hmm?"
" There were no parts I could use and besides…"
" I think you're growing attached to Sidious's old saber, eh master?"
" You know Anakin, you've grow quite attached to that little astromech droid. R2-D2."
" Whoa, that is different, he can communicate and he has somewhat of a personality. The saber you have and an inanimate object. One that Sidious owned."
" Call me sentimental then."
XxX
Obi-wan and Anakin stayed on the bridge in this good mood for the whole trip. The crew found it rather annoying since most of them thought they were going to their deaths.
The ships burst out of hyper space above the metal orb Coruscant. A droid fleet was there to meet them. They seemed evenly matched now. Both fleets the same size, now all that mattered was the quality of the people, or droids in them.
The first shots were fired by the rebels on Anakin's orders. And so the bombardment started until the fighters came out. And now just half an hour after the battle started it had become full scale. This is where Anakin and Obi-wan come into play.
Both took off in a new type of interceptor, the design a cross between a Jedi Interceptor and a Vulture Droid. After leaving the safety of the hanger bay both Jedi were immediately attacked by a swarm of tri- fighters. Anakin had R2 lock onto them and he squeezed the trigger, just below the top of the yoke that steered his ship, sending out a huge flurry of missiles and destroying the swam in a burst of superheated gas as well as plasma.
The two Jedi flew side by side, literally cutting through the armada of Imperial ships. They had developed their own plan along with the help of a rebel commander. That was to make a clear path to Coruscant so that they may send down landing legions and storm the military base.
That would be easy enough to do. The rebel fleet was directly in front of the Imperial one, behind that was Coruscant. A gap of missing command ships in the middle would be enough for the transports to fly through quickly and land on the planet.
Anakin and Obi-wan swarmed around the Imperial ships that were being heavily bombarded to clear the path, shooting missiles and the small bombs that their new interceptors carried down at the ships.
" Anakin." Obi-wan called while dropping a couple of bombs on an imperial ship that was charred from explosions of plasma. " This ship is a floating shell, if we can split it in half and get it out of the way…"
" Then we have a clear path to Coruscant, gotcha. So any bright ideas?"
" We need to go back to the capitol ship and get a squad of heavy bombers. Then we blow the crap out of that hull."
" Good of idea as any. Hang on."
" What the hell are you doing!"
" Just dropping half my missiles on the thing."
" That is crazy Anakin. All you'll have are you cannons."
" Correction master, all I'll have are a few atomic charges I armed this thing with before I took off… then my laser cannons." Anakin said as his missiles hit the charred hull exploded and made a huge gash.
" You're going to drop atomic charges on the thing! Anakin you cannot waste those, they could cut a ships shields."
" That's the idea master, I drop the charges, it makes a deeper gash in the hull and the explosion travels to the surrounding capitol ships, it might short out their shields. Then we call in the bomb squad."
" Just do it before we get shot."
" Of course master." Anakin said pressing a button on his consol. Out of the small cargo hold of his ship came at least a dozen small round charges no bigger than two heads put together.
" Alright master time to get out of here." Anakin said turning around. Obi-wan follows, another squadron of droids flew at them only to join the dust in space. Once they were out of range of the bombs they turned their ships around. The rebel ships in the area did the same at seeing the charges. Then something went horribly wrong. The charges were hit as they fell by an imperial ship they was flying over the hull. Instead on hitting their target the charges hit the ship and exploded. A huge blinding blue light swept out forcing Anakin and Obi-wan to look away. When it cleared they saw the devastation.
The imperial ship was headed straight down to the shell and was nothing more than a huge clump of plasma. The bomb had also shorted out the shields of nearby imperial capitol ships as well as vaporized several squads of vulture droids.
The hunk of plasma crashed down into the hull and split it in half. Then both pieces of the hull and the ball of plasma went their separate ways leaving a clear path to the planet.
" Well Obi-wan, looks like we wont be needing that bomb squad after all." Anakin said with a cocky grin on his face. Then he called in the troop transports telling them to land now. And so the sped toward Coruscant to the military base, Anakin and Obi-wan right behind the though at the last second they turned heading for the senate district and Sidious.
XxX
Sidious stood and looked out of his huge window to see several dozen transport ships headed for the military base. He also glimpsed two little interceptors heading to his building. Anakin and Obi-wan, Kenobi and Skywalker. Now he was glad Xen was on the Death Star, he could have fun killing the two little Jedi all by himself.
XxX
Anakin and Obi-wan touched down on a landing platform that connected to the Emperors building. A welcoming party of destroyer droids rolled up to greet the. The Jedi cut as many down as they could before the activated their shields and pushed the rest of the ledge of the platform.
" You know, you would think Sidious would want to fight us himself and not send droids at us." Anakin mused as he and Obi-wan walked into the building and into a huge hall with a line of turbo lifts at the end.
" He does want to fight us himself. He just needs to prepare, that's why he is sending these droids."
" Yeah well if he is hoping to slow us down then he is in for a rude awakening." Anakin said as they begun to walk down the hallway.
Then a small group of six magnaguards came out of a door to their left. Anakin turned to them activating his lightsaber.
" You guys, you're really asking for it aren't you?"
" Drop you weapons Jedi."
" Never." Said Obi-wan as the two Jedi leaped at the pack of metal idiots. The guards stabbed at them with their electro staffs only to be cut in half and then decapitated.
The last droid struck at Anakin who parried the electric staff and Obi-wan ran to the turbo lift. Anakin made a series of cuts which decapitated the droid as well as left him limbless.
Anakin caught up with Obi-wan and the lift door open.
" You know Sidious is giving us a nice warm up."
Obi-wan stroked his beard as the two entered the lift and it shot up. Indeed it was a warm up.
The lift doors slid open into a hallway which in the middle intersected with two others but went straight on to a door. That led to Sidious. Activating their weapons Obi-wan and Anakin went up to the door and it shot open. The two walked in and the door closed.
The room had changed since Anakin was there before. There were black velvet carpets and instead of statues of diplomats there were statues of Sith.
The sofas down in the middle bowl of the room that had once been made of red leather and had been small were replaced by black and crimson velvet ones. At the far end of the room was the huge window. In front of it the old chancellor's desk and behind that Sidious saber in hand and sitting in the old chair.
" Welcome Anakin and Obi-wan." Sidious said standing up. " I must say I was surprised when you bested me on the Death Star, but mark my words it wont happen again."
" You are right." Obi-wan said.
" This time you die." Anakin finished. " Two to one aren't exactly great odds."
" Correct, not for you." Sidious said extending his hands and pushing his desk at the two Jedi. They leaped and rolled in the opposite directions. Sidious activated his lightsaber as they came at him from both sides. Obi-wan came first, he leaped into the air and kicked him the face causing him to fall and roll down the steps between the sofa's holding a bloody nose.
Anakin came next and ferociously cut at the dark lord who parried each blow and struck back. Anakin backed up and lost ground. Sidious was better than ever. He cornered Anakin against the wall as Obi-wan stood up and used the force to push Sidious back into his chair which slid back and shattered the window. Sidious leaped off of it as it fell out.
" So this is how Darth Tyranus felt. Pure joy, now I see why he wanted to fight you again." Sidious sneered as Obi-wan ran up and continued the fight. This time it was Anakin's turn to take a hit, when he ran us Sidious used the force to fling him out the window. He landed on the slanted roof and slid down catching the edge at the very last moment.
Obi-wan punched Sidious in the stomach and pushed him out of the window to. Sidious caught his balance though and with great effort propelled himself onto the top roof of the place. Anakin got up onto the roof and ran after him. Obi-wan did the same.
The two came at the dark lord. Both struck and both were parried. This contest lasted until Sidious could no longer block both ambitious Jedi. On Anakin's next strike the sabers locked and Sidious pushed Obi-wan behind him and off the roof.
The Jedi master slid all the way to the bottom and fell off landing on a landing platform eight feet below. He fell on his back and was temporarily paralyzed, leaving Anakin to kill the dark lord.
In a fit of rage Anakin punched Sidious in the jaw. This blow was unexpected and the dark lord lost his balance falling off the roof and landing on the same platform where Obi-wan was. He though landed on his feet. Quickly Anakin ran down the roof as Sidious smiled twirled his saber and brought it down to Obi-wan. Just in the nick of time Anakin parried the blood red blade spun around and struck at Sidious's saber hand cutting it off. Sidious yelped in pain and jumped away to the edge of the platform. Anakin used this opportunity to check on Obi-wan
" Are you alright?"
" Anakin… I… I think I'm paralyzed."
Sidious stood up them and extended his last hand. A wave of force lightning hit Anakin and sent him hurling away from Obi-wan and over the edge of the platform. At the complete last second he grabbed on but dropped his saber. Looking down he felt a sick feeling of loss in his gut as the little metal handle landed on the roof and rolled away.
Banishing the feeling he leaped up, flipped in the air and landed in front of Sidious. Before the dark lord could do anything a dark boot made contact with his chest sending him flipping over the edge of the platform. With his last hand he grabbed on. Quickly Anakin stepped on it and looked over the edge. Sidious actually had a look of terror on his face. It vanished and he sneered up at Anakin.
" You might have defeated me. But you still have a battle station controlled by a Sith assassin to destroy. Xen will not die easily."
" Maybe not but at least I get the satisfaction of seeing the bastard who commanded Nute Gunray to kill Padmé die."
" You haven't won Anakin not YET!" Sidious screamed as he fell onto the roof and rolled off falling onto cold hard permacrete ground of Coruscant.
He ran up to Obi-wan and bent down.
" Nice work Anakin." He said. Anakin smiled and lifted the Jedi master walking into the building and stepping on Sidious's hand crushing the lightsaber it still held.
XxX
The Republic was restored a month later, the senate back up and running and a new Channcellor. Bail Organa who beat Padmé by a mere three thousand votes. There was but one thing left to take care of. A space station as big as a planet floating around out there, surrounded by a small fleet and housing an army as well as the last Sith.
Though the Republic could breath easy for a while knowing that the Republic was safe from the Sith tyrant that ruled over it for almost thirty years but the war was far from over. The last Sith still had to die and that couldn't wait forever. Anakin and Obi-wan knew this but right now they were just glad they could spend some time with Padmé and more time training Luke and Leia.
XxX
" Lady Xen, we have word that Lord Sidious has been killed." Said an officer approaching Xen from behind. She was staring out of the window in the control room of the Death Star.
" Well, they still have to deal with us then don't they?"
" Right you are milady, but what should we do now?"
" Take this piece of crap to a planet in the outer rim."
" Why?"
" So we can use resources from it."
" And then what?"
" We destroying and with it so goes the Republic."
Hoped you liked it, this chapter was 2018 words long and eight pages it took up. Review and look out for the next one. Note, Obi-wan was only paralyzed temporarily.