Chapter 22

I made it! I wrote two chapters this week. One on Monday, and one today. I did not have much tiem to really edit it, tho. Normally I edit at least three times. This week I only had time for one. But whatever. Who even edits anyway :/

reviews:

MalirBly: Thank you! And I'm sorry you've having difficulties writing... it really is the worst feeling, isn't it? I'm so happy to hear you love it! Luckily I did manage it in time :)

littlesky33by: I know! :( it hurt writing that scene, but it was necessary. Thank you!


Ahsoka sat there, crouched on the branch for several minutes before hearing the first sounds coming from afar.

Speeders.

They were coming. And Ahsoka would be ready. She looked around several times to see if there weren't any probes that they sent ahead. It would suck to be caught by one of those right now.

To her relief, Ahsoka found that there were currently none in sight. She waited for the speeders to get closer before getting ready to move. Within seconds 5 speeders entered her line of vision – which, given the overgrowth, meant they were right on top of the crashed fighter.

Ahsoka scanned them quickly, counting four troopers. They started inspecting the crash right away.

One released a probe. And that would be Ahsoka's que to leave. Sooner or later they would find out that the pilot of the crash had in fact survived. It would be better for her if she were at the base when that happened.

Ahsoka headed west, where the speeders came from. She leapt from one branch to the other, being thankful for the density of the forest. Her lithe form could easily maneuver through the trees without branches breaking or sounds being made.

Putting quite some distance between herself and the crash site, Ahsoka slowly guided herself back down towards the ground. Making barely a sound as she landed. She looked behind her for any sign of the probe but found none. She listened intently to hear if one was nearby, but again found nothing.

It struck her as a little odd, the fact that there were no security measures around this part, but who was Ahsoka to complain. She just had to be on guard.

Ahsoka broke out in a sprint and made for the base.

=O=

In the end it wasn't all that hard to find. Togrutas were natural hunters, which made Ahsoka a talented tracker. Signs of patrols weren't that hard to find, as it was easy to leave a trail on the forest floor. All Ahsoka had to do was to follow it.

Ahsoka had to give the Empire credit. They'd build the base as inconspicuous as possible. The building was one story – above ground level, of course. What was below was still a mystery – which made that it didn't reach over the treetops. From afar it was impossible to spot.

Ahsoka now also guessed why they didn't have many probes around. This base was obviously meant to be kept a secret as much as possible and relied on stealth instead of hordes of security. She could understand that way of thinking but given the fact that they housed almost every bit of communication going around in the Empire she didn't know if 'almost no security' was the best way to go.

Again, Ahsoka would never complain. She had to break in, after all. The less security, the better.

After doing a quick sweep around the base from within the tree line to look for security HoloCams and scanners and such, Ahsoka hid behind a tree and waited for the next patrol to pass. That would give her a window. It took about 5 minutes, but then two stormtroopers came into view. If she listened carefully, she could hear them talking.

"-Heard about that ship that crashed a few kilometers away?" one asked.

The other nodded. "Yeah, I heard they send a team to investigate. Guess we'll hear something later," he said.

"Should we up our patrol frequency?" the first one asked. They both stopped walking and stared at each other. At least, Ahsoka thought they did. It was hard to see with those buckets on their heads.

One second and "nah," was heard, before they started laughing and continued walking. Ahsoka wanted to facepalm. How were these men so stupid? Whatever, it didn't matter. She was the one who had to break in at their expense.

Once they rounded the corner, effectively blocking them from her sight, Ahsoka made her move. She reached out with the Force and crushed the HoloCam closest to her. She immediately hid back behind the tree.

If Ahsoka's calculations were correct, security would pick up on the broken security cam and would send one of the two guards at the side door to inspect. She'd picked her target carefully. The side door was the easiest to enter without drawing much attention. It had two guards. If all went according to plan, one would go to the security cam in a second, leaving the second alone at the door. And Ahsoka could take one stormtrooper with ease, without alerting anyone.

Ahsoka moved away from her hiding place with a visual on the HoloCam towards her target entrance, just in time to see the message come through that a cam was down. As predicted, one grumbled but stalked away around the corner.

Meanwhile, Ahsoka stayed in the blind spot of the other trooper and moved towards the wall. She snuck up behind him, only to 'tap' on his shoulder. The trooper turned around, startled.

"What the-" but he got no further. Ahsoka kicked him in the head with force, knocking him against the wall and effectively knocking him out. He slumped to the floor. She turned towards the door and reached out with the Force. With some effort she found the locking mechanism and opened the door. She slipped inside and watched the door close behind her again.

Determined, Ahsoka took a few steps forward, only to stop right after.

What now?

That suddenly rang through her head. Ahsoka had done a lot to figure out how she was going to do this, but totally forgot that she had no idea where to go once she was inside. She cursed herself silently.

Obviously, Ahsoka had to make it to the central command room, but where would that even be? It's not like she had the schematics of this place. She had no idea where to go.

Oh well, she was inside now. Ahsoka just had to push through. She started walking again. Keeping herself hunched over and on guard. She moved along the hallways. She encountered several groups of stormtroopers but was always just in time to hide in the next hallway over for them to pass.

Ahsoka waited for clues as to where she had to go. But just couldn't figure it out.

=O=

10 minutes. Ahsoka had been in here for 10 minutes and she was done. She had no idea where to go, and she was not going to wander around aimlessly. Any moment now the alarm would go off because the unconscious trooper outside would have been reported. She'd thought of a quick plan: the first stormtrooper she saw, she would 'take hostage', give him a Force suggestion and let him lead her to the central command room.

It was a perfect plan, very well thought out. Absolutely nothing could go wrong with it.

It was a terrible plan. And Ahsoka knew it. But it was just all she had right now. She could not fail. Something Master Yoda always said that fit with this situation: do or do not, there is not try. She had to go for it, or the plan would never work at all.

=O=

It took a minute or two of patiently waiting more, but then Ahsoka came across a lone stormtrooper. Which was rare, they mostly moved in groups.

Ahsoka slowly stepped out of the shadows. The trooper stopped walking and stared – probably. He raised his blaster at her.

"Who are you? What are you doing here?" he asked.

Ahsoka didn't answer his question. Instead she just raised her hand as she started to speak. "You will take me to the central command room. No questions asked," she said, while waving her hand in the suggesting manner that went with the mind trick.

Stormtroopers were generally weak minded, so he repeated her statement immediately. "I will take you to the central command room. No questions asked." With that he turned around and started walking again. Ahsoka followed closely behind. If she was being escorted by a stormtrooper she was less likely to get any more questions about her business here. Though she did wrap the Force around her to make herself as invisible as possible. Better safe than sorry.

=O=

They walked, and Ahsoka memorized every hallway they passed. To her luck, they also passed the hanger. She spotted a shuttle perfect for her escape. She had to make sure she remembered the way here.

Finally, they reached their destination. It was marked by two stormtroopers guarding the door, again. The moment they spotted Ahsoka they immediately were on guard.

"Who are you and what are you doing here?" one of them asked. Or, well, asked? More like demanded.

That seemed to snap the mind-tricked trooper out of his state. He turned around and raised his blaster to her. That made the other two raise their blasters in alarm as well. And at that moment the alarm went off in the base. INTRUDER ALERT it called.

Well, Ahsoka thought, took them long enough to report the unconscious trooper at the door. But right now, it didn't matter anymore. She was where she wanted to be. Her stealthy aspect of the mission could be dropped. By the time reinforcements would arrive to the central command room, she would be long gone.

It would bring no harm now in revealing herself as a Force user at this moment, either. The Empire would try to find her, sure. But she was going to find them first, anyway. All part of the plan.

Because of this fact, Ahsoka pulled her lightsabers from under a hidden layer of fabric at her hips and activated them. That gave the stormtroopers enough reasons to shoot at her, but she didn't mind. She deflected the shots easily. Every single shot hit the wall. She then used the Force to push two of them against the other wall, hard enough to knock them out. It was certainly her go-to trick today. She heard them grunt before they slumped down, unconscious.

The one stormtrooper that was left kept shooting. Ahsoka lashed out with her saber and cut the blaster in half, effectively stopping any shots. With a flick of her wrist, she threw him up against the ceiling and let him fall back down. With that the sound of fighting completely died down. Ahsoka sheathed her lightsabers, picked up a blaster, and turned to the door.

=O=

The officers in the room had certainly heard the commotion outside their main door. They stayed rooted at their spots in front of their HoloScreens, eyes at the door. When the sounds died down, nobody dared to move.

Then the door chimed.

The officers all stared at each other. It was protocol to first chime before entering. Could it be one of theirs? Or was it the intruder? They really had no way of knowing. The HoloCam in the hallway appeared to be dead. Must've been hit by one of the blasts they heard.

Their captain eventually decided. "Come in," he said.

The door slowly opened, revealing a young-adult Togruta woman holding a blaster. She was not one of theirs. Before any of them could even reach their small on-hand blasters, she'd already used hers to shoot out the lights.

It suddenly became dark in the room, with only some eerie blue and red lights coming from the few HoloScreens that were currently on. The shadow of the woman seemed to drop the blaster. The sound it made once it reached the floor echoed through the room. Everyone slowly put their hands on their blasters. Some holding her at gunpoint already.

The Togruta woman appeared to remain completely calm. It unnerved most of the officers inside. What was she planning? They saw her move but couldn't pinpoint what she was doing.

That is, until the room was lighted in a whole different blue. Blasters were suddenly raised high and panic shot through every single person in the room, except the Togruta herself.

Lightsabers. The woman had lightsabers. Two! It was a Jedi! They had a Jedi in their command center!

They would not get out of here alive.

Without much more doubt, they all started firing.

=O=

Ahsoka had picked up on their panic, and she was confident she was the only one way too calm to be in this situation. Bringing her lightsabers up in defensive position, she moved through the room. These small defensive blaster thingies the officers carried didn't do all that much damage and were easy to deflect.

Using the Force, Ahsoka threw several of them against each other. They stumbled. Ahsoka moved behind them to use them as temporary shield. She reached out with the Force across the room and…

"sleep."

The command rang through the air, and one by one the men and women started to sway and collapsed. Within a minute, Ahsoka stood alone in the room, among twenty sleeping Imperial officers. She deactivated her lightsabers and stepped over their sleeping forms up to the main HoloScreen.

Time to find Anakin.

Ahsoka used a security code on the badge of a fallen officer to get in and scanned the logs. And oh man… this was going to take a little while. There was so much information. The Empire had so many ships currently on log in space. Big and small. Ahsoka had no idea what she was even looking for through all this.

Oh, if only she'd taken Artoo with her. He would've found the right information within a minute. Two, tops. Alas, Ahsoka was alone. And she had to figure this out on her own, as well.

Ahsoka silently cursed herself for not better understanding data and slicing. She was an excellent combatant and a great mechanic. But she lacked the proper skills in retrieving data.

Ahsoka read through it as fast as she could, but it was taking up too much time. There had to be a faster way to do this. Someway she could search for certain keywords.

Searching the screen, Ahsoka found a small rectangular space in a corner. It must be some kind of search bar. She typed in Vader's name. Rows of information came up. Logically, it should be in chronological order, so Ahsoka looked at the top.

ISD Devastator, command: Darth Vader. Objective: insurgents. Location: Ryloth. Estimated time of arrival: three days.

Three days. Ahsoka checked when the report was filed. A day ago. That meant that he would be arriving in two days. Ahsoka would be there before that. She would wait for him.

Ahsoka cleared the HoloScreen and walked back towards the door, again stepping over sleeping forms. But before she stepped out of the room, she turned back. She reached out with the Force and triggered the button for the alarm. That would attract attention towards the central command room. It would make all troopers hurry there, clearing a path for her towards the hanger.

Ahsoka confidently stepped out of the room and wrapped the Force around her, displaying a 'nothing to see here' message to all that passed her, just like when she walked the hallways towards the command center with that one stormtrooper. It wasn't hard, given the fact that stormtroopers weren't known to be strongminded and they were in a hurry. She was confident anyone would just pass her by.

She was proven right. Nobody noticed Ahsoka on her way to the hanger. Ahsoka walked along the small row of ships up until the very last one. It was the one she'd spotted when she walked past here with the stormtrooper. It appeared to be one of the higher up's that must be here on base.

Oh well, he or she would just have to do without it for the foreseeable future. Ahsoka was sure the Empire would replace this one before long. She walked inside and checked for any trackers – again this would be much easier if she had Artoo with her.

Ahsoka could do it herself, of course. She was a mechanic after all, but Artoo was just faster. She checked the panels in the cockpit and found a small tracker hidden under a small console at the back of the steering panel. She pulled it out and stepped on it, effectively putting a stop to any future transmissions.

Initiating the startup sequence, Ahsoka made herself familiar with the controls. Before long she was in the air, speeding off towards the vacuum of space.

Next stop on this mission: Ryloth.


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