Anakin Skywalker

Anakin didn't like his current mission.

He, alongside his new padawan and clone troopers under his command were tasked with investigating suspicious separatist presence on the planet named Odessen. Two weeks ago republic intelligence intercepted a message about them moving several ships to the area, for unknown reason. Odessen was a backwater world, containing nothing but mountains and forests, with nothing indicating that there is something there valuable for the war effort, so increased activity of the separatist forces was deemed suspicious by the jedi council. They, in their infinite wisdom, decided to send him to investigate it, instead of doing something more productive, like liberating planets conquered by separatists or fighting siths. Because of course it wasn't as important as a few ships landing on an uninhabited world. For that reason Anakin couldn't help but think that they shouldn't be there.

It didn't help that the planet felt strange. Force was acting weird there, and he couldn't really understand why. He didn't have any problems with using it, but every time he did, it felt like force would try to influence his emotions in a small way, amplify it. It didn't feel like the dark side though. Anakin would sense it if it was the case. There were no symptoms of the corruption that would be present if Odessen were to be attuned to the dark side. Nevertheless it wasn't a normal situation. It was hard to explain, but the force was different than on other planets. He tried to meditate, to understand the reason for this anomaly, but no matter how he tried, the nature of this phenomenon would elude him. After a while he decided that spending more time on this mystery would be a waste. It would be better to just investigate separatist activity and leave instead of dwelling on it.

Not that there was anything else to do at the moment. To not alert separatists, Anakin and his troops landed quite far away from enemy position. It meant hours of walking through the forest surrounding closest separatist base, with the moon as their only source of light. It also meant that everyone was quiet, so the only noise they would hear would be their footsteps and various animals, disturbed by their presence. The walk was uneventful as the only tense moment was when they spotted pack of bipedal predators in the distance. Fortunately they didn't come close, as they probably assumed that group of almost twenty people would be too dangerous to attack. Outside of that one situation, they were able to reach approximate location of the target without any complications.

It didn't change the fact that all that cautious manoeuvres could be considered quite boring. To tell the truth, Anakin would prefer to just openly attack enemy forces and grab any relevant information after destroying any resistance. He knew stealth was a safer way though, especially with a padawan with him. Ahsoka was talented, but he didn't want to endanger her recklessly, just because he wanted to end the mission faster. She could get in enough trouble even without him pushing her into it. Sometimes he wondered if he was the same during his time as Obi-wan's padawan. He was quite sure that he at least wasn't as reckless as Ahsoka though.

He was brought back to present by a movement between the trees. He tensed, ready for a fight, but he quickly saw that it was just a scouting team, consisting of three clones, that was sent ahead to determine the precise location of the nearest enemy position. After waiting for them to come close to the main squad. After a few seconds they reached Anakin.

"Sir! We have spotted Enemy fortification two kilometres ahead. It looks like some sort of the outpost, most likely created to report any signs of enemy activity to the main camp. At the very least it doesn't seem like it is heavily fortified" said one of the clones, saluting. His armor was covered in dirt, which meant he had probably crawled at some point, to avoid detection. "it doesn't look like they detected us."

While there could still be some surprises waiting for them in the enemy camp, it was good news. They were quite close to the target without being spotted and their target was not prepared for any serious attack. Of course he would have to see the base with his own eyes, but if the force allowed, they would be able to get intel about separatist movements on this planet without anyone being the wiser. Then they could finally move to something more important.

"Good, let's move out" ordered Anakin. It didn't take long for them to reach the location. After a short march they finally saw the building through the trees.

It was a simple base, made in the shape of a square, around 20 square meters. It was surrounded by a wall, three meter tall, with a watchtower on each corner. It was located in the small clearing, that was most likely created artificially to place it there, based on some tree trunks still laying around the camp. The entire complex was quite small, which confirmed scouting squad's hypothesis about it being just an outpost. While it was reasonably well prepared for a camp, It didn't look like it was made to stop a serious offensive, which meant that the enemy hadn't expected anyone to attack them. Number of forces stationed there also wasn't that high. After observing the base for a while, they could spot maybe a hundred of droids outside, with some officers and additional droids probably outside. With their own forces consisting of twenty three clones and two jedi, it didn't look like they would have to worry about being overwhelmed.

"Good, our next step is to take over the base, preferably without enemy forces noticing our actions" ordered Anakin. He grabbed a stick laying close to him and started to draw the plan of action on the ground "we will move from the north. First we will have to get rid of anyone capable of spotting us. Corric, Oz, your job will be find a high ground and move there to snipe the droids on the watchtowers. When you are done, me, Ahsoka and ten of you will scale the wall and try to enter the base unnoticed, with Corric and Oz taking out any enemies that could spot us. The rest of you, your job is to surround the place and get ready. In case we are detected, you will ambush the enemy and stop them from contacting other forces" Analin looked at people gathered around him. He had already went through several mission with every member present, so he was sure he could count on them"If everything goes according to plan, the enemy won't even open fire at us and we will complete the mission without separatists suspecting a thing".

"Yes" said Ahsoka, looking amused. She was unusually quiet during this mission, which was connected to the weird energy surrounding the planet. It hit her even worse than him, even going as far as saying that she felt as though the force was trying to tell her something, so Anakin was happy she was able to return to her natural cheekiness "because we are all known for being able to complete the mission without complications". Some of the clones laughed at that remark. Even Anakin couldn't help but snort. That was true, mission without complications was something unheard of in his legion. He wasn't even sure if it was only his fault, as the same happened whether he was around or not. Well, it's not like Obi-wan was much better in this regard, so he wouldn't think too much about it.

"Don't worry Snips" said Anakin with a smile "I'm sure it will go swimmingly"

"Well, look at that, there really was no complications" said Anakin with only a little of disbelief. Things really went according to plan, especially with him in charge, so he was quite surprised they were able to enter the base undetected. Most of the droids were defeated before they were even able to react and the ones that spotted them inside the base were destroyed before they were able to call for reinforcements. In the end they destroyed every droid in the base, grabbed all the intel they could find, they were even able to capture two officers that stationed there. Now they had a defensible position and there was still no movement from the enemy side. He honestly couldn't remember when was the last time something like that happened.

"You don't have to sound so surprised. It will affect our morale if a general doesn't believe his decisions are right" laughed Ahsoka. She wasn't wrong, but it didn't mean he would leave let his padawan win this one. And it would probably help her relax. She was really tense since landing on this planet.

"I will have to know that I work best under pressure, so it's a good thing when everything is getting out of control"

"Sounds like a really lousy excuse from a commanding officer" grinned ahsoka.

"Well, you know what they say. If it ain't broke, don't fix it" responded Anakin "Now shoo, I have to analyze the Intel, at least some of us have to be responsible"

"Whatever you say" Quipped Ahsoka, before leaving the room.

Finding himself alone, Anakin started to read files collected during the attack. While most of them were quite boring, he was able to find out the reason for the separatists moving to Odessan. Apparently Count Dooku sent researchers there to collect artifacts connected to the force, which were supposedly located on the planet. They were tasked with finding a tomb of an ancient force-user and bringing any secrets they found back to Dooku. It also explained why force behaved so oddly on this planet. It was connected to some powerful figure from the past, one powerful enough to influence the force even after thousands of years. But what kind of person was resting there? Anakin couldn't feel the dark side in the air, but it didn't mean it was a light side. It was something unique, something he didn't experience before. He wasn't the right person for this situation. He was good at swinging a lightsaber and pushing enemies with the power of his will, but more esoteric aspects of the force were not his forte. He had to ask for advice from his master, maybe even master Yoda. It wouldn't be wise to deal with on his own, now that he knew the separatists objective.

For now he had to find more about this mysterious figure. Unfortunately there wasn't a lot of information left to be gathered. After an hour of reading he found only one important clue about the tomb's owner. It was a name that showed up in many files, as well as some ancient texts collected by separatist researchers.

"Outlander"

Ahsoka Tano

From the second she had stepped foot on the planet, she knew something was very wrong. Well, maybe not wrong. It was definitely something she hadn't felt before though. She could feel the calming effect of the force that she was so used to, but at the same time she could feel that the weird energy of Odessen would try to influence her emotions, making them more potent than normal. Yet it wasn't just anger. If it was to be the case, she would just assume it was the effect of the dark side dwelling on the planet. No, it would also strengthen other emotions, even these positive, like happiness she felt after impressing her master or relief about predators avoiding them instead of attacking. It caused her a lot of confusion. She had been taught that too much of emotions lead to the dark side and it was Jedi's responsibility to keep them under control at every moment. Yet what she felt on this planet didn't feel unnatural. It wasn't a corruption trying to sneak its way to her heart and make her fall to the dark side. It honestly felt right. And it scared her to the core.

That's why she tried to ignore the feeling. She would act normal among others. She would joke with Anakin and she would talk to the clones in her squad. Yet she couldn't stop worrying. The longer they travelled, the more she felt like the force tried to tell her something, she even said so to Anakin. He told her to not worry about it, as he felt the anomaly too, but he decided it was better to just concentrate on the mission. From his point of view, they just had to find the reason of separatist activity on Odessen and leave. Then the feeling would stop and they would be able to return to normalcy. Not wanting to bother him further, Ahsoka dropped the subject, hoping she would be able to somehow suppress the feeling.

But it wasn't the end. After a while she started to feel something different. It wasn't just an odd manifestation of the force, passively influencing her in certain ways. After they took over the base, she went to talk with Anakin. She would talk to him for a while, even joke a bit, making her believe that the worst had already passed. The moment she left him though, she felt an unknown presence not far away from her. It wasn't anything specific, just a feeling that something was standing at the gate of the camp, waiting for her. Alarmed, but not entirely sure she hadn't just imagined it, she decided to investigate it. She hadn't experienced something like that before, so informing Anakin would probably be a better thing to do, but he was already worried about her, so she didn't want to make it worse. With these thoughts in mind she started to walk towards the gate, hoping that that presence was just her imagination, born from the stress she was experiencing since landing on the planet.

Unfortunately she quickly learned that the presence was very real. When she neared the gate, she saw a silhouette of the person, leaning on the wall near the gate, acting as if this whole situation was normal. She couldn't see any characteristics, as it was just a barely visible figure of a person, partially transparent and not casting shadow. She could feel it was watching her, patiently waiting for her arrival. Even though there were several clones nearby, none of them were able to see it, making her the only one around able to perceive this strange phenomenon. It only made Ahsoka more concerned, as she still couldn't decide if the spectre was a force manifestation or just her nervous mind imagining things. Her only option was to wait for any new developments, so that she would be able to finally understand the situation she found herself in.

As if hearing her thoughts, the silhouette stopped leaning on the wall and started walking in her direction. Ahsoka panicked. She didn't understand the situation, so letting some unknown spectre get close to her wouldn't be wise. But before she was able to react, she noticed that the figure didn't walk into a touching distance contrary to her fears. It stopped around two meters before Ahsoka and raised its hand. It was pointed to the west, in the direction of the closest mountain range,barely visible in the distance. It consisted of several mountains, each of considerable height. Every peak of the range was covered in snow, making the range quite a pleasant sight.

But before she could ask about the meaning of this gesture, her mind experienced numerous visions, sent by the mysterious figure, every vision showing her a different place. Firstly she saw a path through the mountains, hidden from a view of an unaware traveller. It led to the mysterious gate built to protect ancient secrets from the unworthy. After that she saw what was behind the gate: it was an enormous tomb, built under the mountain. It was extremely old, yet perfectly preserved, still showing the power and wealth of its owner. It was filled with countless sculptures and carvings, each of considerable worth . The vision led her deeper and deeper into the tomb. The closer she was to the center of the tomb, the more pressure she felt on her. The feeling started to overwhelm her, as she didn't know how long she would be able to withstand it. As she was thinking that, she finally reached the center.

There, she was able to see the source of the pressure. It was a beautifully carved sarcophagus, full of carvings of unknown meaning. She could feel that a lot of effort was spent to build this place. But it didn't matter. Nothing about the looks of the tomb mattered. Because the most important thing about it, the only thing she was able to think about, was its power. It was overwhelming, flooding everything with its presence and warping the air around it even after thousands of years since the death of its owner. She wasn't even able to describe what she experienced. She felt like she was drowning in the energy released from the tomb. So powerful was the energy contained in the tomb, that her mind froze, no longer able to even turn away from the sight. She could only watch the vision silently, overwhelmed by the pressure. And then the vision ended.

She was standing again at the camp, covered in sweat and hyperventilating. She tried to calm herself, but the feeling of the tomb wouldn't leave her mind. The spectre was waiting patiently, watching as she tried to compose herself. After a while she was finally able to get herself together. By the time she did that, she was surrounded by worried clones, asking her what happened. She wouldn't be able to answer then however, as even she couldn't really put into words what she had just experienced. Ignoring the clones around her, she looked the spectre in the eyes, or at least where she imagined it would have eyes.

"Thank you" She said.

Even though the vision was disorienting and quite frankly terrifying, She understood the meaning behind it. The figure wanted them to find the tomb before the separatists. It made her really glad that she and Anakin were sent there by the Jedi council, as she wouldn't even dare to imagine what Sith would try to do with so much power. It would be disastrous if the separatists were to learn about the enormous power lurking within the tomb. She could only be thankful for a spectre for standing its silent vigil, protecting this place from being used by the wrong people.

Ahsoka was ready to turn around, to inform her master about this development, when she heard something. It was quiet, no louder than a whisper. The figure was trying to say something. She concentrated, trying to hear the ancient wisdom shared by the guardian of the tomb, as it would probably contain some valuable lesson. But contrary to her expectations, she only heard one thing "just doing my good deed for the decade". With these peculiar words and the impression of the charming smile, the figure disappeared, leaving her confused and more than a little disappointed. She expected something more than a witty comment, especially after experiencing such a powerful vision . Then again, maybe it did it to make her relax after experiencing such an ominous message? Either way Ahsoka had more important things to do than to wonder about such a silly things. She had to warn her master about the danger buried under the Odessen and a mysterious ally she had just met.