Chapter 8: A Dutchess' extraction

NOTE: Sorry for the 4 day long wait for this chapter, life has been catching up to me and I have been quite busy, but I will try to update this whenever possible.

Ahsoka casually 'patrolled' the perimeter, sending the current location of every solider she passes, as the extraction team follow closely behind her.

The extraction team was small, and consisted of 2 deathwatch soliders, Bo Katan and Korkie. Korkie had insisted he aided in his aunt's rescue mission. A few rebels where stationed outside the complex, to act as a getaway team.

She mimicks the pose of the guards she passes, with their backs straight and hands practically cradling their blasters, as if it was a kid. She was slightly surprised that her armour was convincing enough, for none of the many guards that had passed her by had even considered her remotely suspicious.

The team hid themselves in the shadows, holding breaths, whilst they waited for the guards to pass.

Ahsoka got to the main cell block where the dutchess was being held, she could see 2 patrol troops walking towards her, and another typing in the code to open the dutchess' cell.

She whispered into her comlink, "The dutchess is being transferred from her cell, attack with caution. I will clear off to remove any suspicion, proceed when ready."

Setting her com on silent, she walked off down a passage to the left, steering clear of the soon-to-be attack site.

Bo Katan' POV:

We peek around the corner and Perdita is out of sight, this must be the time to attack.

We silently stalk behind one of the guards, I put him in a head lock, so he can't breathe or make any sound, tightening my hold when he tries to suck in air. I look up at one of the soliders, who has positioned the barrel of a pistol to the guards neck, pulling the trigger, the smell of burnt flesh warps its way into the area.

We look back towards Satine's cell, and we can see the guard attacking her as she struggles against him. I look back towards the crew, who are silently observing it, and as if we are all thinking the same thing, we nod in agreement.

We sneak our way towards the cell, and we can hear Satine's struggling cries "Unhand me traitor! There is no need to use brute force and violence!"

Well...

I think to myself pacifism isn't going to get anywhere Satine, as my the bullet connects with the guard's back, piercing through his upper spine.

The guard drops to his knees, right arm clutching his back in agony. We hear a thump as the body goes limp and hits the ground. For a second, she stared in shock and disbelief at the body, her face registering one of both speechless and relief, before looking back up to find the source of the shot.

For a few precious moments, the air is heavy in silence.. akward silence. I was almost thankful when Korkie spoke up to fill the silence, "We are here to rescue you Auntie Satine".

Satine looked up at her nephew, and broke into a run, practically leaping herself onto him and firmly latching her arms around him in a passionate hug. "Korkie" she softly said, the word was laced with joy. I have never seen her so happy in her life.

The rest of this part happened more or less similar to the actual arc, but to summarise it:

Satine wanted to call upon the help of the jedi council to save her, but communications were blocked. So the extraction team had to leave the city so she could send out a distress signal, which was sent to Obi Wan Kenobi.

The transport was chased through the city all the way, until it crashed into a small bay after the engine was critically hit, causing the vessel to lose balance. The team of rebels put up a resistive fight, but ultimately failed, leading to Satine being recaptured.

Bo Katan fled with the soliders, after knowing they would be fighting a losing battle due to being outmatched, leaving Satine with the shadow collective again,

The call reached Obi wan, who was sent alone due to Mandalore's neutrality in the war.

Meanwhile, to summarise what Ahsoka was doing during this time in this story, she was keeping up with filling the role as a shadow collective solider, but maintaining contact with the team.

The last thing she heard on the comm was that they were being chased, until the communication went dark.

Ahsoka's POV:"Fall back! Fall back!" she could hear Bo Katan's voice screaming from the other end of the com. Thankfully there was no solider nearby, but from what she could tell, it was because a large handful of them were currently occupied by chasing the team.

Bo Katan must have forgotten to mute her comm, because the plan wasn't sounding as smooth as they had hoped. All she would have to do is sit and wait till the option of rescue presents itself. She turned the volume down, ensuring no eavesdropping meddlers' were listening in.

After a full 10 minutes of the other end going silent, she attempted to commune with the team, but she got no reply. The comms had gone dark. As far as she knew, she was more-or-less alone.

As her job as a bounty hunter, she could just ditch them and leave them to die, but some part of her, the recently dormant jedi self was still gripping her decisions, forcing her to stay and protect the innocent from the injustice.

With no comms, this was going to be a long night.

2 days later...

She was put on 'patrol' duty, and noted that Bo Katan and the rest of the soliders weren't imprisoned, which leads Ahsoka to conclude that they were either killed or had escaped.

She needed to know, she was in the dark about what was going to happen and what had happened. Satine would not know that she was a bounty hunter, so she would have to be careful around the dutchess to probe for information.

She walked over to the cell, punching in the code, which she had memorised as 2503 to open the cell door.

She shuffled in, knowing the camera angles from when she monitered them yesterday, she harshly grabbed Satine by the shoulders, and shoved her into a corner which was out of sight of the cameras.

"Get off me Traitor!" she cried, but Ahsoka pressed her finger to her lips and whispered "ssh.. I dont have much time".

Satine looked confused for a second, so Ahsoka decided used a method which psychologically calmed her down, meaning she could probe for information. If Satine saw who she was talking to face to face, she would be less likely to resist.

She slowly lifted her helmet off her face, revealing her orange skin and white facial markings, her lekku changing to a paler blue at the rush of fresh air, which was restricted from inside the helmet. Beads of sweat marked her forehead.

"I apologise for throwing you around like that, but I needed to look convincing from the camera angle" she explained "I am a bounty hunter, Bo Katan hired me, I need to know what happened to everyone during the extraction." Her voice was practically a whisper.

Satine looked at her, scanning her face for deception, and found nothing. Skeptically, she questioned "How do I know that this isn't some sort of trick? I don't know where they went so there is no point asking." her voice had a harsh tone to it, seemingly implying she had lost hope once again.

For now, that was all Ahsoka needed, wether the dutchess knew it or not, she could imply that the group had in fact escaped and are very much alive, meaning they are probably rendezvousing at a location, planning on a second escape plan. That was all the reasurrance Ahsoka needed for her determination to ensure the job will be fulfilled.

Lifting her helmet back over her face, she opened the cell door again and closed it behind her.

By the time she was outside, she could see a ship she recognised attempting to land on the platform before her.

For a second, she felt overjoyed, because it was the twilight, Anakin's ship. But those feelings were quickly extinguished when she realised she must hide her identity from all jedi in order to survive her in new life as Perdita Pax. However, she couldn't presume it was Anakin piloting, because the way it was descending onto the platform seemed different to Anakin's normally reckless style.