Star Wars 2.0
Episode 5: Rise of the Clones
Chapter 9
Anakin landed in an empty stadium. Though the Force gave him the ability to jump long distances, it was still wearing on his body, especially his knees. And so they stopped in a location where he and Padme Amidala knew they would have some privacy for a time while they figured out what they would do.
Anakin wanted to sneak into the space port to steal one of the droid ships. "Aren't the droid ships just droids?" Padme asked.
"Only the fighters. The transports are flown."
"Have you ever been on one of them? Do you know if you need to be a droid to plug into it and make it fly?" Padme's questions were so rapid that Anakin didn't have a chance to answer either of them until they were both asked.
"Well what do you suggest?" he asked.
Padme thought a moment, then said, "There are emergency signals used only by military and law enforcement commanders of the Republic. If we can get to a comm tower..."
"We can call for help," Anakin said.
"Even if they don't manage to rescue us, we can send information that might be useful to them," Padme said.
"Right. Wait, what? You're suggesting that we might not get out?"
"We have to plan for the worst case scenario."
"You're traveling with me now," he said. "We're going to get out."
"Rest up, Master Jedi," she said. "I'll see if I can spot a comm tower."
Padme went to the edge of the stadium and peered out over the city in search for the tell-tale signs of a planetary communication tower. "I'm not a Jedi master," Anakin said. "The Council doesn't trust me well enough. I'm still a padawan learner."
Padme looked at him steadily and said, "Well you're enough of a master of the Force for me." Anakin blushed. Padme looked back over the horizon, then exclaimed, "There! Jedi Master Skywalker, can you get me to that tower?"
Anakin stood and approached Padme with a large smile. Not even looking at the comm tower, he said, "Of course, my queen."
Owen's ship had come out of hyperspace within the Brodax system, but one orbit away from the primary planet, hiding behind a gas giant, while Owen and Baroo scanned from a distance. The Tempus Legionworld was surrounded by droid ships, but they had not sent a very large force, so the net was loose. Owen just needed to learn where his brother and the queen were. He figured they would be in the capitol, but it was a city of a few million people.
The abilities of the standard scanners had been used up. The pair had learned what they could from them. Perhaps Anakin had already gotten away. They could be captured; or worse yet, killed. Maybe they were negotiating a peace and swooping in for a rescue would only complicate matters. Owen was thinking through all of the possibilities. Then he noticed that Baroo was tampering with the scanners. "What are you doing?" he asked.
"My dad taught me this trick to scan wavelengths rather than images," she told him. "He showed me how I could isolate sound patterns, colors, radiation... You could find out more than your eyes could see. My dad could always find his way around things. Just give him machine parts and he'd have them working in ways you didn't think possible." Baroo's gaze had turned outside as she remembered her father, as though she could see his face once again. Then she shrugged and got back to work. "But who knows where he is now; probably dead. So might as well get to work."
"What was his name?" Owen asked.
Baroo hesitated a moment, then said, "Turlis."
"I'm really sorry," Owen said. Baroo softened a bit and turned her gaze toward him. They shared a moment of silence together.
Then a light on a small box he had tucked away on the corner of his dashboard began to blink. Baroo saw it and asked, "What's that?"
Owen looked over confused. "That's a fuzz detector."
"A what?"
"It's to monitor communications between Republic constabulary forces." Baroo's blank stare told Owen she had no idea what he was talking about, so he explained, "Their patrol vessels use this signal to send messages they don't want the public to know about. It gives pilots like me a leg up on their movements and activities."
"So it helps you break the law," Baroo said.
Owen began to stammer and search for an excuse. Then he saw that she was smiling about it, so he said, "Something like that. Turn to it."
Baroo turned to the signal and they heard Padme's voice. She was asking for aid from any Republic forces. Though the message would have gone into hyperspace, it wouldn't be reaching Republic territory for a few dozen hours. In that time, anything could happen, and Owen pointed that out.
Baroo was already working with the signal, utilizing what her father had taught her to narrow in on where the signal would have come from. Padme had said where they were, which would be helpful to Republic warships with maps, but neither she nor Owen knew where that was.
A storm was raging all around them as Padme and Anakin huddled in a corner of the roof of a building. They had placed a tarp over themselves, which not only covered them from the rain, but also hid them from the droids that were searching for them.
They had needed to destroy a pair of droids in the comm tower when sending the signal. This would naturally alert the others when their pings stopped registering with their units. Padme had sent the coded message as fast as she could, and she gave instructions on where she and the Jedi Knight would be found. They had then abandoned the tower and gone to the roof of the building next to the one she had named in the message, just in case the droids managed to somehow decode it.
From their perch, they could see that the droids had learned of their presence. Their hover vehicles spread out with spotlights splashing across the buildings. One of them was struck by lightning, which amused the couple. Not wanting to take a chance, they got under the tarp. It would be hours before any ship would arrive, if they ever did at all.
Anakin held Padme in his arms; her legs draped over his. Water dripped down their faces, their hands. Their breath was trapped within the confines of their makeshift tent. Their cheeks rested on one another. Her eyes turned to his, only centimeters apart. They could feel one another's hearts beating. He held her hand tenderly. She clenched, her leg tightening across his. And then their lips touched, the rainwater gathering around them.
Owen's ship broke through the clouds and raced full speed toward the city. The droids would not have had time to set up heavy anti-aircraft guns, so he wouldn't have to worry about that. They needed to keep their eyes out for fighters and other craft that could shoot them down, which Baroo was doing.
She had plugged the coordinates into Owen's heads up display, and he was following the directions in toward a series of tall buildings. He flipped the ship's communicator to the standard Republic wavelength and called. "Anakin, do you read?
Anakin looked at his commlink confused. He picked it up and said in a surprised voice, "Owen?"
"Looks like you can't get rid of me. I'm diving in on your position now. Get ready to jump in."
"How did you find us?"
"Long story. Just get ready!"
Padme peeked out of the tarp and spotted the ship nose diving for the neighboring building. She also saw several droid aerial platforms flying toward it. A couple of them had heavy blasters, enough to cripple the vessel. She dashed to the edge of the building, set up against the edge, and fired at the two strongest droid vehicles. She took down one, then the other.
The anti-personnel platforms turned and bore down on her. Anakin hopped into action, jumping into the way, lightsaber on, and he deflected the shots. Padme let him shield her while she blasted another one.
"What's going on over there?" Baroo asked, pointing at the neon battle taking place. It was off their path, but Owen knew that was Anakin. He steered toward it and did a flyby. The wake of his engines scattered the nearby aerial platforms, and Padme was able to take advantage of the opportunity and shoot down a couple more. Anakin tossed out his lightsaber and used the force to guide it into one, then another, then a third droid before pulling it back to himself.
Owen swung the ship around to come down to the roof. As he did, he saw larger hovercraft flying up at them from the ground, and droid fighters bearing down on them from above. He opened the hatch and stopped just above the roof. He waited a moment, and somehow, he could feel that Anakin was on board. So without waiting for the signal, he put power to the engines and flew out of the apex of their enemy.
Now the chase had begun. Anakin hurried to the cockpit and said, "Owen, let me fly. I'm the better pilot."
"Good to see you, too, brother."
"Scoot over."
"You get to the gun. I've got this."
"Just scooch..."
"No! The transfer will..." The ship rocked from blaster fire. "Just get to the turret!"
"All right, all right!" Anakin dashed to the gun turret in the center of the ship. Padme strapped herself into the backseat.
The swarms of enemy ships seemed to come from everywhere. Above, the fighters were bearing down like a roof caving in. That made the only logical solution down into the city. He dropped in among the canyons of tall buildings. Aerial platforms appeared out of alleyways and random shots came from below. Owen was going too fast for any of them to keep up. They were just causing damage as he passed by. One of the platforms appeared in front of him just too late, and it shattered cross the front. The droid's torso, head and an arm stuck to it for a time, causing Owen to have to stretch to look past.
Anakin was firing at the real threat, the fighters, which were entering the canyon from above. He hit a few that smashed into buildings, or better yet, into the crowds of droids on the street. The droid fighters were more maneuverable than the HWK-290, so they didn't have any trouble making the turns. "Why are we in the city?" Anakin shouted.
"Stop nagging!" Owen shouted back. He had used this route in hopes that some of the droid fighters would get lost among the streets. It had worked. So when he pulled up, they had lost about half of them. He now flew into the strongest part of the storm. This was where the HWK-290 had the advantage. It stayed steady against the heavy winds while the droids had to struggle against them.
Now in the open air, it was easier for Anakin to shoot down more fighters, especially with the larger cannon of the ship. The problem was the sheer number of them, and no backup from Obi-Wan like he was used to.
Suddenly they all felt the ship shake dramatically along with a bright light and a thunderclap. "What was that?" Anakin asked.
"Thunderbolt!" Padme said.
Baroo leaned forward and looked over the dashboard. The instruments looked fine, but she could tell something was wrong with the ship. It was shaking in a way it hadn't before. "I'll go check the damage," she said.
"I'll come with you," Padme added, and they ran out of the cockpit. Their progress was greater left and right than forward as Owen was still maneuvering. He took a sharp left, then corkscrewed up to the right, trying to fool the droid vessels, but he was also fooling his brother, who was having trouble lining up a shot.
"Can you keep it steady?" Anakin shouted.
"No, I really can't!" Owen responded.
Baroo spotted the damaged section without effort. A burn mark scarred half a wall. Pulling out the panel to look at the mechanics, she cursed.
"What?" Padme asked.
"The hyperdrive's part of that."
"Is there anything we can do?"
Baroo scanned it over with her eyes. The ship turned violently to the right, then shook from being hit, but she kept her eyes on the wall. "I might be able to bypass something. It's dangerous, but so are those droids. Grab me those tools."
Owen pulled suddenly upward, and his ship disappeared into the clouds. Anakin lost his targets, but kept searching, and fired every time he got a break in the veil. Owen slipped to the left so sharply he nearly did a U-turn, and he shot away at full speed. When they next had a break in the clouds, Anakin did not see their pursuers.
"Nice flying, Owen!" Anakin exclaimed.
"We're not out of it yet," Owen answered. He pulled up, and darted them into orbit. There they could see some of the larger ships bearing down on them, with whole new swarms of fighters on their way.
"Not a problem," Anakin said. "Just get us far enough away for gravity to not be a problem and go to light speed."
"Not yet!" Padme shouted over the intercom. "Hperdrive's blown. Baroo is working on it."
Both Anakin and Owen's mouths dropped. Then they said in unison, "Fix it!"
"I'm working on it!" Baroo shouted back.
Owen steered away from the enemy ships to buy them some time, but they were faster and nimbler, and there was nowhere to run. When it became clear that some of them were going to catch up, Owen called back to his brother and told him to turn the turret forward. "What are you gonna do?" Anakin asked, turning the turret.
"Hold on!" Owen shouted, and they steered straight into the swarm. Anakin got a couple shots off, but they were going so fast, they flew through it in no time. They also took a direct hit to the front, and they could hear the hull breech throughout the ship. "Tell me you're ready, Baroo," he said.
Baroo slammed shut the wall panel and nodded. "Hit it!" Padme shouted. Owen smacked the hyperdrive button, the ship steered a little to the right, and the Outa the Way I Can't Stop shot into hyperspace.
To be continued...
