Me and my master entered the system of Geonosis. "Weird planet," I remarked, centring my Navi-computer on two starfighters up ahead.
Our ships flipped, rolled, and turned at incredible speed, dodging, weaving and firing. They tumbled from near misses. Hits flew off my fighter as one of Jango's missiles gets through.
Finally, it seemed as if we were getting the upper hand. Jango's fighter broke off the fight and dived sharply. He moved deftly between two huge asteroids.
I paused, but Obi-Wan's ship dived into the asteroid belt after them. I watched as he threw the ship from side to side, avoiding great rocks. Then a huge asteroid tumbled across his path. There seemed to be no way he could avoid it. Obi-Wan fired a couple of aerial torpedoes. They streaked toward the asteroid. I could see the huge explosion as Obi-Wan's ship appeared to smash into the asteroid, but I couldn't feel his force signature fade. I dived in to the asteroid belt after him.
"Master!" I yelled, seeing his fighter floating in between two asteroids. I reached out to him via our force bond.
Master!
Vaessa!
You're alive, then?
Yes, but my fighter appears to be broken.
You'll have to come aboard mine. Put on a helmet.
I put on my own helmet and opened the door to the fighter. Holding on to the steering wheel, I directed Obi-Wan to inside the cockpit. I then closed the door and allowed life support to come back.
"Thanks, Vaessa," Obi-Wan said, strapping himself into the passenger seat.
"Don't mention it," I promised. We flew off in the direction of Geonosis, which was surrounded by a fleet of Trade Federation ships. Not good.
…
We climbed a steep, narrow trail. Suddenly, we heard a cry coming from close by. My master stumbled slightly. His foot slipped on the edge, sending a stream of pebbles skittering into the darkness.
We listened apprehensively. Silence.
"Draw your lightsaber but don't ignite it," my master whispered. I nodded, doing just that.
We set off again and worked our way around a narrow corner to confront a crouching massif with slavering fangs. "Oh great," I muttered.
The beast leaped at us, and we ignited our lightsabers as the Massif knocked us onto our backs. Its jaws opened wide. I cut off the creature's leg, making it howl in pain. Obi-Wan stabbed the creature, throwing it off of us, and we jumped up.
A second massif jumped from behind. Obi-Wan swung around and cut it in half. The massif flew over the cliff, howling. It plummeted to its death hundreds of feet below.
I sheathed my lightsaber. "Be on the lookout," my master warned. "This isn't a good place to be caught off guard."
I nodded. I certainly got that feeling.
…
We arrived at the head of the trail. Far below, a flat plain stretched into the distance. My master stopped, peering into the darkness. I followed suit, and saw what he did - strange shapes looming indistinctly.
Obi-Wan took a pair of electronic binoculars from his belt and put them to his eyes. "What do you see, Master?" I asked.
He frowned. "I see... towers. Some sort of city. And..." he zoomed in. "Battle Starships."
I widened my eyes. "Republic?" I asked, even though I knew the answer.
He shook his head. "Trade Federation. We have to get back to the ship."
We ran back to my ship and climbed into the cockpit. We settled into our seats as my astromech beeped a happy greeting.
"Good to see you too, R4," I replied, smiling.
Obi-Wan switched on his comlink.
"Guiding light" to "old folks home," he said. There was a bunch of static. "Old folks home, do you read me?" Static resumed. "It's not working."
"Maybe someone severed the connection?" I suggested.
Obi-Wan stroked his beard thoughtfully. "It's possible, but who?"
Before I could answer, a sharp pain shot through my neck and I fell unconscious.
…
I jerked awake. The first thing I registered was that I was in a room constructed out of solid rock. Then I realized I was being suspended by electric beams. I tried to wriggle free, but they held me tight. I looked around and spotted a cluster of... droids, I think? I'd never really seen any droids that looked like that, but there's a first time for everything.
I reached into the force in an attempt to sense my master. I found him - he was close by, I could tell - but he was unconscious judging by the lack of resistance when I tried to sense his thoughts.
I could feel another force-sensitive presence, though... a somewhat familiar one, too...
I looked up in horror. I have to get out. I looked over to the droids. Worth a shot.
"You will release me," I ordered, waving my hand in the slight manoeuvring space the electric beams left me with.
One of the droids turned around. "Did you try to give us an order, prisoner? Take this!" it clicked a button on its forearm.
I was jolted with electricity and pain. "You will release me," I tried again, only this time I poured a little of my anger into my voice.
The droid's faceplate slackened. "I will release you," it monotoned, and pressed another button on its forearm. This time, instead of being shocked, I fell to the floor.
"You will give me my lightsaber," I ordered after getting up.
"We do not have your lightsaber," the droid replied.
I froze. Darn it, I thought furiously. The droids seemed to still be obeying me, though.
"You will take me to a control room," I ordered.
"We will take you to a control room," The droid replied, and left with me in tow. Hopefully I could pull some strings and contact the temple.
We arrived in a control room. "You will speak of this to no-one," I ordered.
"I will speak of this to no-one," the droid replied.
"You will leave me."
"I will leave you," And the droid sauntered off. I turned to the computer in front of me. "Well, here goes nothing..." I began work on the computer. Anakin had taught me how to reroute a computer so it masks your presence, but I wasn't sure how I could contact the senate when the inhabitants of this place had clearly never felt the need to put them in. I eventually managed to do it, though, and holograms of the masters and Palpatine appeared on the control table.
"Masters!" I said.
"Padawan Orin, trouble, you have?" Yoda asked.
"Yes, Master. I'm in some sort Geonosian building. I can sense my master, but he's unconscious."
"Most troubling, this is," Yoda stated. "Escaped, did you?"
"Yes. I managed to trick a few droids into taking me to the control room, where I managed to contact you."
"Something more on your mind, padawan, hmm?" Yoda asked.
"Yes, master. My master saw something before we were captured... I think starships from the Trade Federation are taking deliveries of battle droids from the foundries on Geonosis."
"That's outrageous!" Senator Organa cried. "The treaty forbids the Trade Federation from building up an army. What are they doing?!
"The droid foundry seems to be working at full capacity. I'll see what else I can find."
"Those Geonosian foundries are part of the Techno Union," the Chancellor stated. "We will call in their representatives and ask them a few very pointed questions."
"One more thing. My master said Jango mentioned he was recruited by someone named Darth Tyrannus. Any idea who that might be?" I had a good idea, but I wasn't going to voice it in case it was true.
"With the forename Darth, a Sith he must be," Yoda said. My blood ran cold. Could it be...
"Our missing apprentice. They are playing their hand at last," Mace Windu said gravely.
"Do you think he could be the mysterious Sifo-Dyas, who made the deal for the clone army?" I asked. I wanted it to be that. Desperately.
"Perhaps too many pieces are missing from this puzzle, there are," Yoda stated.
"Be careful, Padawan Orin. This investigation is becoming far less than routine. Our back-up is on the way."
"Understood. In the meantime, I'll see if I can figure out what's going on."
I ended the transmission. I knew who I was going to contact next.
A hologram of Anakin Skywalker, Senator Amidala and some droid appeared on the table.
"Vaessa!" Anakin exclaimed. "Where are you?"
"Geonosis," I replied. "You?"
"Tatooine," he answered. "What in the galaxy are you doing on a Techno Union planet?"
"We were chasing down a bounty hunter when we ended up here," I replied, and I filled him in on everything that had happened on our mission.
"Sifo-Dyas?" he asked.
"Yeah, have you heard of him?"
"I think Jocasta Nu mentioned him once," Anakin replied.
"Do you know who he is?" I asked.
"Yeah, I think he -" his eyes widened in shock. "Vaessa, behind you!"
I began to turn around when I felt another one of those blasted pains in my neck and blacked out.
…
My next position was somehow less comfortable than the last.
I was chained to a pillar, surrounded by a stadium of literal bugs. "Nice of you to come around," a familiar voice said.
"Thank you, Master," I replied. "I managed to contact the council, reinforcements are coming."
Obi-Wan nodded, somewhat relieved. "I wonder who the other poles are for?" he asked. I looked around, and did spot two more wooden poles.
His question was answered a second later. A group of bugs appeared, carrying a cart holding none other than Anakin Skywalker and Padme Amidala. I really hoped they weren't our backup.
"I see you got my message," I said.
"You were supposed to stay with the Senator," Obi-Wan lectured.
"I did," Anakin replied as the bugs chained him and the Senator to the poles. "But then she decided to come and rescue you."
"She?" I asked.
"Um, yeah?" he said. "It was her idea, not mine."
"I can hear you," the Senator said irritably.
Anakin laughed. I leant back against the pole in relief. So they're not our backup.
The crowd roared as a group of sentients appeared in the archducal box. One of them was wearing Jango Fett's armour, but that wasn't what scared me.
Please don't recognize me, please don't recognize me, please don't recognize me...
I had no suck luck. Count Dooku's eyes narrowed as they found me. Even after eight years, he still remembered me.
We couldn't loose. I couldn't go back there.
"The felons before you have been convicted of espionage against the Sovereign System of Geonosis," a human official droned. "Their sentence of death is to be carried out in this public arena henceforth."
The crowd roared in response. A bug rose from its seat, and the crowd went quiet. It said something in numerous clicks, and the crowd erupted in cheers yet again.
"I have a bad feeling about this," Anakin groaned.
"Wonder why," I muttered.
From gates around the arena, four monsters entered. The first was a reek, the second a nexu, the third an acklay, and the fourth a rancor. They charged towards us, roaring and screeching.
"Anakin, take the one on the left. Vaessa, you take the one in the middle. I'll take the one on the right."
"What about Padme?" Anakin asked.
Obi-Wan looked up. "It looks like she's already on top of things."
Me and Anakin followed his gaze to see the Senator perched on the top of her pole.
The rancor charged at me. I waited calmly until is was so close its jaws were wide open, and ducked. The rancor bit right through my chains, setting me free. I jumped out from under its head, to its left. I used the force to get the part of the pole that it had bitten of to ram it down the rancor's throat. It took a few seconds and absolutely all of my power to keep the wood together but the rancor eventually fell to the floor, choked to death.
I turned around to see absolute pandemonium. I seemed to have defeated my monster first, as Anakin was currently attempting to ride the reek, and Obi-Wan was running towards a Picador with the acklay on his heels. The Senator, meanwhile, was on the top of her pole, reeling in pain as the clutched her exposed stomach, which was covered in claw marks.
Judging the Senator's situation as the most dire, considering that Anakin had as much of a talent for getting out of this kind of mess as he does for getting into them and Obi-Wan tended to know what he was doing, I ran over to the Nexu and jumped on its back.
I soon discovered that was a bad idea. The Nexu roared and attempted to buck me off. I grabbed onto it's mane and tugged its neck back. It roared in pain, bucking so hard I slipped and fell onto its quills. Pain coursed through my back, but I got up and grabbed its neck. It roared even more, but I reached out to it via the force, attempting to calm it down. It did, and its quills flattened as it made a sound that sounded a lot like purring.
"How d'you do that?" Anakin asked. He had managed to rein in the reek with his chains, though it was still growling at him menacingly, and was sitting on it with Padme behind him.
"Non-violence," I answered. "You should try it some time."
He grinned. "And Obi-Wan?"
"He's fine," I replied. Then I heard the acklay screech. "On second thoughts, maybe not..." And we took off in his direction.
The acklay was advancing on Obi-Wan. It had a spear in its armour, but that seemed to only madden it.
The nexu roared and tore off one of the legs. The acklay screeched in pain. The reek pounced on it, and began to devour the acklay.
"Hey master," I said, grinning.
Obi-Wan frowned. "How..." he shook his head. "Never mind."
We looked up to see none other than Mace Windu behind Count Dooku. And there was our backup. He tapped the Count's shoulder, and they had a minute conversation we couldn't hear. Then Master Windu drew his lightsaber, and about a hundred other figures in the crowd did too.
Count Dooku's smile only seemed to grow. He made a signal with his hand, and thousands of droids poured in from every gate.
Anakin looked at me, eyes wide. I wasn't sure how this was going to end, and I can normally predict this sort of stuff. Jango jumped up to attack Master Windu, and the battle begun.
The sudden fighting scared the Nexu and Reek. The Reek bucked its riders off, and the Nexu seemed like it was going to do the same to me when I reached back out and soothed her. "Easy..." I muttered, and led her around the stadium. I retrieved mine, Obi-Wan's and Anakin's lightsabers from a jedi and threw Obi-Wan's and Anakin's at them. I ignited mine and led my Nexu around the stadium, slashing down battle droids.
Despite our efforts, the jedi were driven back. There seemed to be an almost infinite supply of battle droids, and the geonosians weren't exactly helping either. Jedi were being either shot down or trampled, and we couldn't defeat the droids at a speed that would have the same impact.
Anakin and the Senator were standing back to back, Anakin taking down every battle droid he could find and the Senator shooting with a discarded pistol she found. Mace Windu and Jango Fett were fighting an oddly well-matched battle, but eventually, the bounty hunter's body fell to the ground.
"Someone's got to shut down these droids!" my master yelled.
"It's being taken care of!" Master Windu yelled back.
I breathed out in relief. So this wasn't the only backup.
We were herded into the centre of the arena, surrounded by dead jedi and geonosians along with smashed battle droids. I climbed of my exhausted nexu just as droids led a group of jedi, including Emeryx and his master, Ki-Adi Mundi.
"I'm guessing these are your reinforcements?" I asked Master Windu.
He looked annoyed, so I guessed it was a yes.
Count Dooku cleared his throat from the archducal box. The droids lowered their weapons. "Master Windu!" he called. "You have fought gallantly. Worthy of recognition in the history archives of the Jedi Order. Now it is finished." He paused. "Surrender - and your lives will be spared."
"We will not be hostages for you to barter with, Dooku," Windu replied.
"Then, I'm sorry, old friend. You will have to be destroyed."
The droids raised their weapons. Count Dooku raised his hand to fire when the Senator spoke up. "Look!"
I looked in the direction of her finger, and saw six gunships descending fast through the open area in the arena ceiling. They landed around us, and clone troopers filed out from inside them. They began to blast the droids in all out crossfire. Yoda appeared out of one of the doors. "Come on - hurry! Hurry!"
We dashed to the gunships and scrambled in. They ascended into the sky.
Me, Anakin, Obi-Wan and the Senator stood open the open side of the gunship as clones fired on the droids below. The gunship slowed, circling over a droid gun placement. It blasted it, but the gunship was rocked by a near miss. It lurched violently.
"Hold on! Look over there..." Obi-Wan yelled.
A geonosian speeder was racing past. In the cockpit was the unmistakeable figure of Count Dooku.
"It's Dooku, go after him!" Anakin yelled.
The pilot began to comply, but there was a huge blast. The ship lurched on its side, and the senator tumbled out.
"Padme!" Anakin cried out in horror. I looked on in shock as the senator tumbled to the ground.
"Put the ship down! Down!" Anakin cried hysterically.
"No!" my master replied. "Forget her. We have to go after Dooku." I thought 'forget her' was a little harsh. She was a galactic senator, after all, and her safety was a priority second only to Dooku's capture.
"No we're not! Land this ship!" Anakin replied angrily.
"Don't let your personal feelings get in the way," Obi-Wan yelled. "We've got a job to do."
I looked on anxiously as the senator got to her feet and waved for us to follow Dooku.
"I don't care! Go back!" Anakin yelled.
"Anakin!" I interrupted. "She's all right! Look!" Below, a clone trooper ran up to the senator.
"Follow that speeder!" Obi-Wan ordered.
…
The three of us ran out of the gunship and towards a hangar. We opened the doors and burst in to find Count Dooku and a group of droids, who raised their blasters.
"That won't be necessary, Captain," Count Dooku stated. "Stand down. And leave them to me."
The droids lowered their weapons as Count Dooku looked at us with slight amusement.
"We move in together," my master instructed. "Anakin, you slowly on the -"
"I'm taking him now!" Anakin cried.
"Anakin, no!" My master hissed.
"Anakin, Dooku always has a bigger plan," I said. "If we wait -"
"You'll pay for all the Jedi you've killed today, Dooku," Anakin cried, and charged across the open space at the count. I watched in dismay as Dooku smiled faintly, waiting for him. Anakin raised his lightsaber. At the last moment, Count Dooku thrust out an arm, and Anakin was lifted up, hurled across the room, and slammed into an opposite wall. He slumped to the foot of the wall, semi-conscious as Count Dooku advanced towards us.
"Kenobi, isn't it? And your padawan?" He looked at me for a fraction of a second before turning back to my master. "As you can see, my Jedi powers are far beyond yours. Now, back down."
"I don't think so," Obi-Wan replied.
Count Dooku smiled maliciously as we lifted our lightsabers. "Ah, but if I must." He drew his own lightsaber. Him and Obi-Wan began to circle each other. I watched on, determined not to get involved unless I had to.
"I have spent the last sixteen years learning to use the power of the Dark Side," he said darkly. "It gives me infinitely greater power."
"You will have to prove it," my master replied. He came in fast, swinging at Dooku's head. He blocked easily. As the fight went on, it became clear that Dooku was the complete swordsman. Not that I didn't already know.
"Grand Master Kenobi, you disappoint me," he said amusedly. "Yoda holds you in such high esteem." He parried another cut. "Surely you can do better...?" He parried yet another. "No, I'm surprised. Has Jedi swordsmanship degenerated so quickly, or are you trying to make fun of me?" He swung a blow at my master's head. "Which is it?" He thrusted forward with his lightsaber. Obi-Wan stepped back quickly, panting for breath. "Come, come, Master Kenobi. Put me out of my misery."
Obi-Wan took a deep breath, got a fresh grip on his lightsaber and came in again. For a moment, he drove the count back. Then Dooku's superior skill began to tell again, and he forced Obi-Wan to retreat.
Count Dooku increased the tempo of his attack. I watched helplessly as my master was pushed to the limit to defend himself. Dooku pressed. His lightsaber flashed. Obi-Wan was wounded in the shoulder, then the thigh. He stumbled back against the wall, tripped, and fell. His lightsaber went skittering across the floor.
Deciding this was a good time to intervene, I ran over to them, sticking out my lightsaber to meet the Count's.
He turned in shock. "Vaessa," he sneered, and we began to fight. I lunged for his side, which he blocked easily. "Your style has not changed," he commented while ducking a roundhouse kick.
"Because it works," I answered. He was a far better swordsman than I was, though, and I was quickly outmatched.
My lightsaber was knocked out of my hand. I braced myself for the killing blow, but it never came. Instead, a blue lightsaber came to meet Count Dooku's. Anakin.
"Miss me?" he asked.
"Hate to say it, but yeah," I replied, summoning my lightsaber to my hand.
"That's brave of you, boy - but foolish," Count Dooku sneered. "I would have thought you'd have learnt your lesson."
"I'm a slow learner," Anakin replied, and swung his lightsaber at the count at the same time I did. He parried us both, but the force of Anakin's attack knocked him off balance, giving me an opportunity to swipe at his leg. He again parried, but dealing with both of us was enough to give us the upper hand.
"You have unusual powers, young knight. But not enough to save you this time."
"Don't bet on it!" Anakin snarled.
"Anakin!" my master's voice yelled. He used the force to summon his lightsaber and tossed it to Anakin. With three lightsabers at our disposal, we attacked. Count Dooku continued to parry and riposte. It was no doubt a more difficult fight than the count was used to, but in the end it was no contest. He had Anakin backed against a wall and me on the ground, having lost all but one of our lightsabers. Finally the count, in one flashing move, sent the arm with Anakin's remaining saber flying across the room. Anakin dropped to the ground beside me in agony.
"And now, you will both die," Count Dooku stated, and drew his lightsaber above us to deliver a killing blow.
Suddenly, the great doors slid open. The droids turned fast, raising their weapons. Through the thick smoke emerged the small figure of Master Yoda. He stopped on the smoke-filled threshold, four droids lined up on either side of him, guns pointed. Before the droids could get in a shot, Yoda raised his hand, and the droids were flung against the far walls and crashed to the floor in heaps of smoking metal.
Count Dooku steps away from Anakin and me to face the Jedi Grand Master. His lightsaber whirled in a sort of salute.
"Master Yoda," he said calmly. "At last we shall know who is the most powerful."
Yoda drew a shoto saber out of his cane and saluted at the Count. "Count Dooku. No interest in contests, do I have."
Count Dooku charged across the room at Yoda. He rained down blows upon the tiny figure. Yoda didn't budge an inch. For the first part of the Count's contest, he parried every cut and thrust that Dooku aimed. Nothing the great swordsman tried got through. As I watched, his energy began to drain. His strokes became feebler, slower. I smiled. Even the count was no match for Master Yoda.
Yoda suddenly attacked. He swiped at a speed so great Count Dooku was forced to retreat. Words were insufficient to describe the range and skill of Yoda's speed and swordplay. His lightsaber was nothing but a humming blur of light. Count Dooku's lightsaber was sent cartwheeling from his hand. He staggered back, gasping and spent, against the control panel. Yoda jumped onto Dooku's shoulders, and was about to drive the lightsaber into the top of the Count's head.
"The end for you, Count, this is," Yoda stated.
"...Not yet..." the count gasped. He raised his arms and knocked Yoda off his shoulders and then, with all his might, he used the Force to pull on one of the cranes in the hanger. It began to fall on me, Obi-Wan and Anakin, but in the blink of and eye, Yoda was under the crane, holding it up using the Force. Yoda closed his eyes and concentrated. Anakin was unconscious, so Obi-Wan and me picked him up tried to get him out from under the crane. The fallen crane trembled and started to life. Behind it, the sound of the Sail Ship's engines starting up were heard.
Yoda concentrated harder. Slowly, the crane rose. The sound of the engines increased. Yoda exerted every scrap of his powers. The crane lifted clear of us and was thrown to the ground. Dooku's sail ship took off. Me and Obi-Wan ran to the exhausted Yoda, but it was too late. The Sail Ship rose into the air and flew away. Senator Amidala and a clone captain with about ten troopers appeared in the doorway.
"Anakin!" the Senator yelled, and ran to a recently awoken Anakin.
The clone captain marched up to Yoda, stops, and saluted smartly. "Resistance is at an end, General. What are your orders?"
General?
Yoda looked at him and sighed.
…
"Where is Skywalker?" Master Windu asked. Me and my master were standing in the council chamber, discussing Geonosis.
"On his way back to Naboo. He is escorting Senator Amidala home," Obi-Wan replied. I could hear the suspicion in his voice, and this time, I could understand why. Anakin and the Senator seemed to be very close, far more so than the code allows them to be. I wouldn't put it past him to do something insanely stupid. "I must admit that without the clones, the battle would not have been a victory," Obi-Wan continued.
"Victory?" Yoda asked sadly. "Victory, you say?"
I turned and looked at the sad little Jedi sitting in the Council Chamber. Apart from Ki-Adi-Mundi, Emeryx and Plo Koon, who was wounded, the Chamber was empty.
"Not victory, a defeat, it was..." Yoda continued gravely. "Master Obi-Wan, begun, the Clone War has."
…
I returned to my room. Yoda's fear had disturbed me more than I cared to admit. If he could be shaken by this war, what hope did the galaxy have?
I opened the door to find a small blue figure sitting on my bed. Daniyelle looked up as I opened the door. "I heard Count Dooku was at the battle," she said grimly.
I went to sit next to her. "Where d'you hear that?"
She shrugged. "People talk." She paused. "Vaer, are we really going to war?"
"We're already at war."
"Oh." She looked straight ahead. "And Count Dooku is leading the other side?"
I nodded.
She didn't look scared - in fact, she looked angry. Determined. "Soon, I'll be a padawan," she said softly. "And then I'll kill him."
"Niya," I said. "Niya, you can't do that. Master Yoda couldn't even do that."
"Why does that mean anything?" she asked angrily. "I heard Vokara Che talking after I broke my leg. I have a high midi-chlorian count, one of the highest in the order. If I train hard enough, I could get to Yoda's level, and then I'll kill him!"
"Niya!" I said sternly. She looked down, ashamed.
"I'm sorry, Vaer," she mumbled.
I sighed. "It's okay," I said. "Just... don't try to do something stupid, okay?"
She paused. "Okay," she replied. I should've known she wouldn't keep that promise for long.
