Here we are in the next chapter. I'm not going to divulge too much, but some important character later on in the series will make their debuts in this chapter. One of them, however, is nothing more than a cameo. Also, sorry for the delay, I had two exams this week one for National Geography, English History, and Philosophy. As well as, some personal issues which I am not going to discuss on here. Anyway, back to the story at hand.
"This is different." Ben thought as he and Anakin boarded the Venerator ship that was going to take them to Yavin IV.
"I'm aware of that." Obi-Wan said. "Would you like to stay in control?" Obi-Wan asked.
"I suppose, but I wouldn't oppose any assistance." Ben said.
The Chancellor had summoned both of them. He told them that an ancient Sith temple had been activated on the planet. The temple had emerged two days ago most of the Jedi could sense it. Palpatine said that such a structure would no doubt be a danger to the Republic if the Separatists planned on using it. Yoda volunteered to go there as did Master Plo Koon. Plo Koon was leading Republic forces in space while Yoda was going to deal with ground forces and the temple. Palpatine was the one who selected Anakin and Obi-Wan stating that they would need all the help they could afford, and what better help then from the Chosen One and his master.
Of course, Ben knew the real reason why Palpatine wanted it: the Holocron for his abominable religion. It was clear that Darth Sidious wanted to know the secrets of this Holocron. Ben assumed it was really Sidious who stole the Holocron of the Sith temple underneath the Jedi temple. Both Kenobi's were determined to not let Sidious gain either of these Holocrons. They assumed Dooku was going to be there as well. Either he was doing this for Sidious or for his own means, as was the way of the Sith.
The Venerator began to lift off the ground as Kenobi and Skywalker entered the bridge surrounded by Republic officers. However, a familiar figure brought him out of his thoughts: Admiral Wullf Yularen.
"Ah, you must be General Kenobi and Commander Skywalker." He said. "I'm Admiral Yularen." He introduced himself sticking his hand out gesturing a handshake.
Ben shook his hand.
"A pleasure, Admiral." Ben said. He noticed that the ship was now out of Coruscant's atmosphere.
Anakin shook his hand. "Nice to meet you, sir." Anakin said.
"Yes." The Admiral said with a hint of caution in his voice. The Admiral turned away and headed towards the bridge.
Ben was reminded of when Anakin first met Yularen, and was met with a similar cautious reaction from the officer. The only difference about this introduction was Anakin's rank.
"Seems like your reputation precedes you." Ben joked.
Anakin looked at Ben with an annoyed look on his face.
"Hysterical." Anakin said. Despite the look on his face he could tell Anakin took his joke in good stride.
"As you know, General Plo Koon is leading out forces in space. Our strategy is to wipe out enough of their fleet to allow Master Yoda and his ground forces access to the planet." The Admiral informed. "I believe it would be best for us to attack their command ships."
"Understood." Ben said. "I'm guessing that our role is to help out Master Plo?" Ben asked.
"You are correct." Admiral Yularen said.
It did not take long for the fleet to reach Yavin IV. The planet was surrounded by Separatist and Republic ships bombarding each other. Explosions from destructing starfighters could be seen sporadically.
Anakin and Ben were in the ship's hangar boarding their starfighters as were the other clone pilots.
"Anakin, remember our objective is to destroy the Lucrehulk and the Providences." Ben informed Anakin.
"Relax, I took down one when I was nine." Anakin said bringing up his part during the Battle of Naboo. "How hard can it be?" Anakin questioned confidently.
Obi-Wan sighed as his ship began to take off. "Remember to stay in formation." Obi-Wan ordered.
"Roger that." A Clone pilot said.
The ships flew out of the hangar and headed towards the battle and opened fire on some nearby vulture droids. Most of the droids exploded before they could open fire.
This gained the attention of some of the other Separatist starfighters who turned their attention towards the Jedi. However, before either ship could fire, a blue and white Aethersprite-class light interceptor shot down the Separatist ships. Specifically, Jedi Master Plo Koon's starfighter.
"Master Kenobi, Commander Skywalker." Master Plo greeted the Jedi duo via headset comlink. "I am glad to see both of you here." He said.
"I could say the same about you Master Plo." Ben said. There was a double meaning in his words unbeknown to the Kel Dor.
"We need to take down the command ship." Plo said. "Without it the Separatists will lose power in the sky." He informed them.
"Understood." Obi-Wan said. "Anakin come with me." He said.
"I will master." Anakin said.
The duo began to fly towards a Providence-class carrier. The ships' cannons began to fire at them, but could not even get a single hit off of their ships. The Jedi retaliated by firing back at the cannons on the ship's hull, destroying them all. Anakin began to fire at the command center, but the shields managed to protect it from complete destruction.
More Vulture Droids approached Anakin and Ben.
"Reinforcements…" Anakin said. "Just when I thought it was going to be too easy." Anakin said confidently.
"You sound like you've been bored by all of this?" Ben asked.
"Not really, I just appreciate the added challenge." Anakin said as he dodged one of the droids' shots.
"I'm glad you've been enjoying this, but we need to destroy the command tower." Ben said trying to shake a fighter off of his tail.
"I have an idea." Anakin said. "Try to distance yourself from the ship with the droid behind you. Then, fly towards the control tower with it following you. I'll destroy it and try to cause it to crash into the tower. I don't think the shielding is that powerful to withstand that blast." Anakin said explaining his plan.
"I thought your plans were designed to get us both killed not just me?" Ben questioned. Though to be fair, both Kenobi's knew that this was rather tame compared to some of Anakin's other ideas.
"Well do you have a better idea?" Anakin said.
"At the moment… no." Ben said precariously trying to dodge everything the Vulture droid fired.
"Then I guess it's settled." Anakin said destroying another droid.
At that moment, Ben began to fly away from the Providence. With the Vulture Droid following it like a predator tailing its prey. Once Ben was a good distance away, he turned back towards the ship as the Droid fighter followed. He began to speed towards the command tower avoiding every shot from the Droid behind. One of the shots nearly hit R4, but before it could fire again Anakin shot the fighter droid's engine. As it began to head towards the command ship, Ben quickly pulled up. The Vulture Droid crashed into the command center going through the shield destroying it. The Providence-class transporter began to descend towards the planet at increasing velocity as it increasingly burned in Yavin IV's atmosphere.
Meanwhile, Master Plo had managed to destroy another Providence and the Vulture droids defending it, as did some of the Clones.
The starfighters began to head towards the Lucrehulk and began to fire at it. Small explosions began to sporadically burst on the ship's surface. Suddenly, the Jedi began to sense two presences. One was confused and scared while the other was all too familiar to Ben: Ventress. It was clear that Ventress was focused on the other presence following the escape pod in which the other presence was occupied in. Until, Anakin shot at her ship forcing her to lose concentration. Ventress managed to avoid Anakin's fire, but soon the escape pod began to head towards Yavin at full velocity. Ventress could not tell where it landed and her anger began to boil over.
Ben could sense Ventress' frustration as she turned her attention towards them. Ventress was piloting a Ginivex-class starfighter just as she always did. Ventress began to open fire on them. She managed to destroy one of the clones before flying away. It was clear to Ben what Ventress' tactic was: destroy one of the clone fighters, fly away, and lead one of the fighters into an ambush.
"Stop!" Ben ordered. "It's clear whoever it is will lead us into an ambush!" He warned.
Plo Koon stopped, as did Anakin and most of the clones did reluctantly. One pair, however, wanted to avenge his brothers and pursued Ventress.
"Blast it!" Ben commanded. "Anakin come with me! Remember to keep me covered!" Ben said.
"I'll be with you, master." Anakin said.
"Master Kenobi, I'll continue the assault on the Separatist Capital ship." Plo Koon said.
"Very well continue, Master Plo. May the force be with you." Ben said as he began to pursue Ventress with Anakin in tow.
"And with you. I'll contact Master Yoda about both presences we've felt." Master Plo said as he approached the Capital Ship.
Anakin and Ben flew after Ventress and the Clone. When they passed by the wreckage of an ARC-170. Ben and Anakin tried to suppress their anger at the wreckage. Anakin was doing a better job than he did in the previous timeline whenever he saw a clone's death. Though it was clear there was still some room for progress.
"Master, I believe our pilot has the force with them." Anakin said.
"Indeed be careful." Ben said.
Suddenly a couple of Vulture Droids arrived and ambushed them. Ben and Anakin had to split up in order to lose them.
Ben tried to shake the droids, but had difficulty trying to shake them.
"Would you like me to take control?" Obi-Wan asked.
"I thought you hated flying." Ben playfully snarked.
One of the shots hit Ben's starfighter wing. Immediately, Obi-Wan took control. While Ben was not a bad pilot per say, he was still a little rusty.
Obi-Wan flew his starfighter with the three Vulture Droids. He remembered his pursuit of Jango Fett and released his spare parts. The droids were distracted which allowed Obi-Wan to maneuver his way behind them. Obi-Wan began to open fire on the Droids destroying all three of them.
Obi-Wan began to fly back towards Anakin.
"I destroyed the rest of the Vulture Droids." Anakin said from their comlink.
"Good, what about our mysterious friend?" Obi-Wan questioned.
"Don't know." Anakin said.
Suddenly, Obi-Wan's ship was shot again. He looked back and saw Ventress' ship.
"Typical." Ben thought.
"I found her." Obi-Wan said on the comlink. "Come to my location. Hurry." Obi-Wan said.
Ventress' ship launched a missile at Obi-Wan's starfighter. It began to track him no matter where he flew or how hard he tried to shake it off. Fortunately, before it could hit him Anakin destroyed the missile.
Anakin began to chase after Ventress.
"Thanks for the save." Obi-Wan said.
"You're welcome." Anakin said. "Master do you have any idea who this might be?" He asked.
"No." Obi-Wan lied. "Perhaps Dooku is recruiting for possible assassins." Obi-Wan suggested.
"I figured what with Jango Fett now dead. Though this assassin has the force with them." Anakin said tailing after Ventress. "Are you sure you never ran into whoever this might be?" Anakin asked.
"No, I would've sensed this assailant." Obi-Wan said as he followed Anakin.
Obi-Wan noticed a massive explosion from nearby; no doubt it was Plo Koon and the clone fighters.
"Master Kenobi, we have destroyed the Lucrehulk. Where are you?" Plo Koon informed and later asked.
"Anakin and I are pursuing the individual who attacked us." Obi-Wan told him. "The force is strong with this one." Obi-Wan said.
Suddenly, Ventress began to fly towards the planet at high speeds.
"What's it doing?" Anakin asked.
"I believe our mutual acquaintance wishes to settle our dispute on foot, or is after something else." Obi-Wan said and alluding to the escape pod she seemed interested in for a while.
"We should go after it." Anakin said.
"Perhaps, but we have more important matters at hand." Obi-Wan said.
"There's no time!" Anakin argued impatiently heading towards Yavin.
"Anakin!" Obi-Wan called out before sighing. He began to contact Plo Koon.
"Master Plo, Anakin and I are heading to the surface. We've decided to deal with the potential dark Jedi." Obi-Wan said.
"Very well." Plo Koon said.
Obi-Wan began to follow Anakin towards Yavin.
All right and we are done with chapter 14. I am really sorry for the wait and hope that you all enjoyed this chapter. Please leave your thoughts on this chapter in the form of a review and I will try to finish the next chapter as soon as possible.
