So far, R4-P17's first real mission had gone like this: she'd been beaten and battered by battle droids, nearly decapitated by buzz droids, thrown around inside an unstable flagship that would soon burning up in Coruscant's atmosphere, and now she was currently being taken to General Grievous alongside her fellow astromech and their respective Jedi masters. It almost made her miss having a Delta-7 for a body, almost. It was certainly a simpler time for her, but that was then, this was now. And right now she was witnessing what appeared to be a hunched over, coughing droid with lizard eyes and a white cape walking into the control room of Invisible Hand.
"Ah yes. The negotiator, General Kenobi. We've been waiting for you.;" the strange droid began.
'I'm guessing that's the general?' R4 thought.
A battle droid pardoned itself while moving past the group to deliver the Jedi's lightsabers to him. He snatched them away, earning a deadpan, "you're welcome," from the hapless automaton.
"That wasn't much of a rescue;" he continued, "And *cough cough* Anakin Skywalker. I expected someone with your reputation to be a little...older.
"General Grievous," Anakin responded indifferently, "you're shorter than I expected."
"*cough cough* Jedi scum."
"We have a job to do Anakin, try not to upset him;" Kenobi said.
"Your lightsabers will make a fine addition to my collection;" Grievous said.
"Not this time;" replied Kenobi. "And this time you won't escape."
"R2!;" Anakin shouted, prompting the little droid to cause a distraction by deploying nearly all of his tools at once.
Anakin and Obi-Wan used the opportunity to reach out with the force and retrieve their lightsabers. From there, all Hell broke loose as Grievous sent his two magnaguards to kill the Jedi. Anakin, having more experience with the Jedi killers, took his opponent out with relative ease. Kenobi on the other hand, incorrectly assumed a simple decapitation would do the trick, and was shocked when the guard continued to advance on him. However, before the magnaguard could deliver another strike, it was quickly disabled by a well placed zap to its chest eye, courtesy of R4. It wasn't long before Anakin and Obi-Wan had the general cornered. Quickly formulating a plan, he grabbed a fallen electrostaff from one of the magnaguards, and chucked it at the control room's view screen.
"You lose General Kenobi!;" he yelled as he jumped out of the now shattered screen. Thankfully, a panel closed over the broken section before the room could finish decompressing.
"The hull is burning up!;" Palpatine yelled in a panic.
"All the escape pods have been launched," Anakin informed as he looked over the control console.
"Grievous. Can you fly a ship like this?;" Kenobi asked.
On the console screen, the ship's entire rear section was shown breaking away followed by a great jolt which caused the ship to tilt forward.
"You mean, do I know how to land what's left of this thing?;" Anakin replied.
"Well?"
"Under the circumstances, I'd say the ability to pilot this thing is irrelevant. Strap yourselves in."
The half a ship that was once Invisible Hand began to glow red hot and break apart bit by bit as it truly began atmospheric reentry. Anakin struggled with the controls while the droids assisted him from the other consoles.
"Steady . . . Attitude . . . eighteen degrees;" Obi-Wan reported.
" Pressure rising. We've got to slow this wreck down. Open all hatches, extend all flaps, and drag fins;" Anakin replied.
"Temp steady. Hatches open, flaps extended, drag fins . . ." Obi-Wan started before another large chunk of the ship broke away.
"We lost something;" Anakin said.
"Not to worry, we're still flying half the ship;" The older Jedi tried to reassure.
Soon they were nearing the landing strip of a spaceport and by some miracle, they hadn't been incinerated. Though it probably helped that some fire ships had shown up to help cool them down. Anakin finally managed to just barely make a crash landing, and with that, their mission was complete.
"Another happy landing," Obi-Wan quipped.
I need a vacation. R4 beeped tiredly.
