Distraction: Chapter Four

The moment Anakin and I stepped off our ship and onto Ryloth soil, we were automatically on the defense. The Force was sending us a strong warning that we were walking into a trap. They were expecting us.

"You really think they'd go to all this trouble just to capture or kill two Sith?" Anakin asked me as we made our way toward the city.

"My question is," I replied, reaching for my lightsaber though not yet igniting it, "are they confident enough to think they can?"

"Exactly. You think they would've learned their lesson the last time we were here," Anakin agreed. "And what about Luitt? Where is he during this mess?"

I really didn't need to answer that one. It was obvious what had happened. If there was a resurgence of violence, then the Captain and his squad were more than likely captured or killed.

"So, what are we going to do?" the young man asked. "Just walk right into it? And before you answer that, I know what you're going to say. 'Spring the trap.' It's what you always say."

"Only because that's the best answer," I replied as we followed the call of the Force, hoping it would lead us to whoever had taken the trouble to design our demise. "We should be careful," I did suggest more quietly. We were getting close. "The warnings are strong."

"I sense it too," Anakin needlessly replied. I realized the boy's reading of the Force was exceptional; possibly he was more attuned than I was, but there was really no way to judge that.

We continued our trek, this time in broad daylight. Since they were expecting us, there really was no sense in hiding. By the time we reached the city, the streets were deserted. What were they expecting, an entire platoon?

"I have a bad feeling about this," I said, more to myself than Anakin. The boy wasn't listening anyway. His focus was entirely on the towering buildings above us, as well as the many windows we were passing. An attack could come from either of those places.

I focused mainly on what lie ahead. We were coming to the end of the main thoroughfare and were nearing the industrial sector. Beyond that was the shipyards, where the previous attack had taken place. I had assumed the rebellious lot was hiding there.

It didn't happen often, but sometimes my assumptions were entirely false. As the hair stood up on the back of my neck, and a tickle rippled across my senses, the woman who so often haunted my dreams; the one who had led me to the datadisk started speaking.

I glanced toward Anakin to see if he was hearing her too, but the boy's attention was elsewhere.

"Obi-Wan," she was saying. "Come find me. Please. I love you, I miss you. Don't leave me here…"

I wished I could talk back to her, although I'd never actually tried. Would she hear me if I did? I glanced once again toward my comrade who was moving parallel to me only on the opposite side of the street. I had to be quiet.

"Who is this?" I spoke the obvious question and anxiously awaited a reply.

"You know who it is. It's so good to hear your voice."

I was ecstatic. She'd heard me! I had so many questions! I was just about to ask one when I was suddenly vaulted backward and into a nearby duracrete wall. I slid down the wall and landed hard on the walk beneath me.

"What the hell! Anakin!"

The youth stuck his hand out to help me to my feet.

"What's wrong with you?" he scolded me.

"Me? What's wrong with you! Why did you shove me like that?" I was enraged. Never before had Anakin used the Force against me.

"This is why," the young man replied, turning round to the area of the street I was just walking down. With a flick of his wrist and aid from the Force, he lifted a small square sewage grate. Attached to it was a device.

"Land mine," I spoke in horror as Anakin called it to his hand and studied it.

"With a weight sensor. You about stepped on it. Where was your head?"

I couldn't tell him. If he knew I'd gotten distracted by talking to someone who wasn't there, he'd have me committed or worse, tell Sidious. The old man was prone to provide a particular type of painful therapy of his own design.

"I got distracted," I told him. "That's all. It won't happen again."

One of the boy's eyebrows shot up in suspicion. He didn't believe me, but he slapped the mine into my palm anyway and stepped back into the street.

"Watch your step," he commented before I moved to join him.

I had to do something about my problem or else I was going to face my end before my time. I crushed the device in the palm of my hand and allowed the debris to filter through my fingers. No doubt there would be more of these devices in the street, and who knows what awaited us at the shipyards?

We actually never made it to our destination. Signs and scars of a previous battle lined the street just ahead.

"I guess we know what happened to Luitt," Anakin spoke the obvious as I inspected the body hanging from the street light. The rest of the squad were hung in like manner.

"Blaster bolt to the head. Close range," I informed my comrade.

"The others appear to be executed as well. Some have been sliced at the jugular."

Which means they'd been captured first. What I wondered is did the enemy acquire any information from them beforehand? Especially from Luitt? He'd always appeared to be the spineless sort of man and was probably handed the position of rank by favor. He definitely hadn't deserved it. I was almost regretting his death. Not that I was sorry for it, but because I felt deprived of not being allowed to take care of the job myself.

My feeling of deprivation, however, was short-lived and was ended by an alert from the Force.

"Sabers," I warned Anakin, who immediately armed himself just before the sky above us filled with airborne weaponry.

"Grenades!" my comrade shouted before I summoned the Force and intercepted as many as I could to hurl backward. Anakin did the same and soon the ground shook with the vibrations of the distant explosions.

We both took to the walls of the buildings closest to us, running in a horizontal position with the support of the Force in order to dodge more incoming devices. I added speed to my efforts and came short of landing head-on in the middle of a small group of rebels. The dozen or so Twi-Lek taking shelter behind a barricade hadn't expected the Sith they'd been hoping to kill to stand amongst them.

I later regretted striking so soon. Instead of fear being revealed on their faces, all I'd seen was surprise.

"Is that all of them?" Anakin asked as we both took in the carnage. I was thinking the same thing. Surely Luitt and his squad hadn't been defeated by such an insignificant group. Then again, they probably had. I sent my awareness out.

"It appears so," I replied when my search returned void.

Would I ever learn? As soon as the words came out of my mouth, the buildings started emptying. Hundreds of Twi-Lek and human species filed into the streets, each arming themselves with apparently whatever they had on hand. Pipes, table legs, lamps, vibroblades, though some did have blasters.

"Let's kill the whole stinking lot of them," Anakin growled as I took a quick estimation.

"There's about four-hundred Rylothians before us, and probably that many behind," I informed him. "Even the bravest of warriors know that sometimes the wisest thing to do is retreat."

I glanced at my comrade who nodded and simultaneously we took to the sky, landing gently upon the top of one of the taller buildings. We'd make our way out of town via rooftops.

"We're going to return and teach them a lesson, aren't we?" The boy shot back as he jumped the space between two buildings a few feet ahead of me.

"Of course we are!" I yelled in reply while doing a mental count of how many torpedoes we had onboard our Acclamator-class ship.