Chapter 8: Escape from Mandalore

Bail felt unnerved as he walked to his Senate office. He had no idea what he was going to do in relation to the Grand Moff law Palpatine wanted him to sponsor. He wanted to believe Thrawn, but didn't know if he could.

His office was empty when he entered as all his aides had gone home for the day. He checked his computer and saw Palpatine's office had sent him the draft he requested. He also saw he had a recorded message from Sheltay. The message came with a warning, telling him he was only to answer it if he was alone.

Confused as to why a message of hers would require such secrecy, Bail double-checked to make sure his office suite was empty. Her holo-image appeared before him as he started the message. Sheltay looked tense, causing him to wonder what could have happened. She was on a simple journey to have a photo-op with some refugees. What could have possibly gone wrong?

"Bail, please listen carefully and delete this message immediately upon its completion. I have news of grave importance. While meeting with refugees a while ago, I came across Padme Amidala." Bail's mouth dropped to the floor upon hearing the news. If he didn't know that Sheltay had a perfect memory, he would have assumed she was mistaken. Knowing her, though, he knew there was no way she was wrong. He listened intently as she continued.

"I got her away from the rest of the refugees and onto my ship. She is hiding out in my quarters. I am returning to Alderaan immediately. I would suggest coming home to meet with her, as she has a story you need to hear. It is going to be important for us to stay hidden, so I will be taking her to the Lake Palace. When you return home, come out as soon as possible. That is all I am comfortable saying now. I will see you in good time."

Sheltay cut off the transmission before Bail could say a single thing in reply. For a moment, he couldn't move as he was simply too stunned by the news Padme was alive. He wondered how she ever made it off Geonosis alive. It took him a while to think Thrawn might have had a hand in her escape. He nearly leapt out of his chair when he realized that. If Thrawn did, then it was certainly proof he was truly aiding the resistance.

...

Vader paced up and down the prison hall where Satine was being held. They had subjected her to another round of intense interrogation, hoping to find out where Obi-Wan was hiding. Just as with all the other sessions, she had resisted telling them anything useful. He knew they needed to switch up tactics, but he had no idea where to start.

In the middle of his pacing, Almec approached him with a suggestion. "Might I suggest a different tactic, My Lord. We have been focusing solely on her, but we are dealing with a woman who does not care about her own well-being. Perhaps if we changed things up, and put other people's lives on the line, we could coerce her to give up the information we want.

"I like that idea," Vader replied. "I take it you have people in mind that we should threaten."

"Of course. She had numerous advisors and dignitaries she was close to. Putting guns to their heads should do wonders to jog Satine's memory and make her talk."

"I'm sure it doesn't hurt that if we were to have to pull the trigger, we would be eliminating enemies of yours."

Almec smirked over Vader's realization. "It's a good way to kill two birds with one stone, as I see it," he said.

"I like the way you think," Vader replied.

"Just give me the word, and I can start having the prisoners rounded up."

"Go ahead and have that started. Use as many clone troopers as you need for this. Re-arrange their schedules for guard duty if you have to."

"These people are scattered in prisons throughout the city. It might take me some time to get all of them here."

"Take all the time you need; I will be waiting in my office."

...

The clone trooper danced along to the music coming through his ear buds as he approached the door to the prison. He was dressed in civilian clothes, a colorful outfit that would have allowed him to fit in with the citizens of Mandalore, provided he did not possess a face that gave him away as a clone.

The two clone troopers standing guard at the door eyed him carefully as he approached. They had to call to him several times to stop before he finally heard them.

"What is it?" he said as he took the buds out of his ears.

"What were you doing out?"

"I had some R and R time, so I went out. What's it to you."

"You're a little late returning, that's what it is to us."

The clone tilted his head back as he rolled his eyes. "And just how do you guys know when my R and R time was supposed to end."

"I don't know what time you might have been given, but I do know all clone troopers were called to duty over an hour ago. We need to round up prisoners from all over the city. It's an all hands-on deck thing. You should have been called in. Didn't you get the message?"

"No, I didn't. Somehow, it must not have been sent to me."

"Let me see your communicator?"

The fear on the face of the clone was palpable. "Uh, I forgot to take it with me."

"Your communicator should be on your person at all times." The clone trooper pointed his finger at the other clone while talking. "We're going to have to write you up for this. Give us your identification number."

"Are you really going to do this? Are you really going to write me up because I forgot to grab my communicator before I left?"

"Just give us your identification number. You do have one, don't you?"

"How insane can you guys be. Of course, I have an identification number. Why do you think I wouldn't?"

"You look a little young to be a clone trooper?"

"A little young. What in the hell are you implying? Look at my face. My face is your face. I am a clone trooper. I can't believe this is even a question. I'm sorry I forgot my communicator. I'm sorry I didn't return when I was supposed to. Just because I made those mistakes, does not mean I am an impostor."

As the two clone troopers looked at each other to see what the other wanted to do, they felt themselves being lifted off the ground. They looked around to see who might be doing this before their heads were slammed together so hard, they were knocked unconscious.

"Thanks. I'm sorry that didn't quite go as planned." Boba Fett turned around to see Obi-Wan emerge from the hiding spot where he had been watching everything. "Look on the bright side, though. This makes things much easier for us. Instead of me having to sneak in and then sneak out with two uniforms, we can just take these."

"The plan was for you to be a clone trooper and me to be your non-clone commanding officer," Obi-Wan said. "I'm not sure if both of us can pass as clone troopers."

"Oh, come on now. With the armor on, no one will know you don't have the same face. You're the right height and build, that is all that matters. I am the one who should be worried, I'm still a little short."

"Not every clone trooper is exactly the same size," Obi-Wan pointed out. "The two of them moved the unconscious clone troopers into the bushes so they could steal their clothes. "Sometimes, they grow abnormally in the Spaarti cylinder, and that affects their growth down the road."

After changing into the clone trooper armor, Boba Fett could see that Obi-Wan made a better trooper than he did. The armor fit the Jedi perfectly, but Fett's was a bit too big for him. He did his best to tighten it around his body, but he couldn't do anything about the helmet. It was too big, and it showed.

"It will be all right, stop fidgeting with it," Obi-Wan said in relation to Boba Fett's helmet. "We have keycards to get us in, let's go."

Boba Fett followed the disguised Jedi into the prison. Obi-Wan was pleasantly surprised the aspiring bounty hunter was following his orders instead of bailing on him. He had contacted the teen a couple days ago, figuring he would need him to break Satine out of her prison. He had heard that Boba's father, Jango, had just been killed while trying to collect a bounty. The boy was on his own trying to take up his father's business and needed any job he could get. Obi-Wan wasn't sure how Boba would react given their history, but it turned out he actually thought well of Obi-Wan for simply letting him and his father go when they encountered each other on Tatooine all those years ago.

Once the two were inside the prison, Obi-Wan pulled out his datapad to view the map of it. Besides scanning that, he was reading the list of commands that had been sent out to the clone troopers. "It appears we arrived in just the nick of time. Most of the clone troopers have been sent out to other prisons to round up Satine's closest allies and bring them here. They are going to threaten their lives unless she gives up my location. By saving her, we will be saving her friends as well."

The two headed directly to the wing where Satine was being held. They didn't encounter any other clone troopers or guards until they reached the prison block itself.

"What are the two of you doing here?" one of the clone troopers in the prison block asked.

"We're here to relieve you." They had agreed Boba Fett would do all the talking so as not to raise any suspicions.

"We didn't receive any orders about being relieved," the other clone trooper chimed in.

"You don't need orders." Obi-Wan waved his hand around as he spoke.

"Uh, we don't need orders."

"You will be on your way and let us take over guard duty."

"We will be on our way-" the first clone trooper said.

"And we will let you take over," the second finished.

The two guards walked past Obi-Wan and Boba Fett and went on their way. Alone now, the two found Satine's cell, opened it from the control panel, and went inside to find her laid out on a metal slab. She was close to unconsciousness, but not quite there.

Obi-Wan took off his helmet as he knelt down to look at her. Satine had her eyes on him and her face brightened when she saw him.

"You should not have come," she said weakly.

"I couldn't just leave you here. I saw through the Force what was happening. It's a good thing we came when we did. They are currently rounding up your allies to bring them here. They were going to threaten their lives if you didn't give me up."

Whatever pain she was experiencing suddenly became too much for her. She howled out weakly as she closed her eyes and appeared to drift further into unconsciousness.

"We need to get her out of here," Obi-Wan said as he picked her up.

The two of them made it back to Slave I without incident. The clone troopers were so dispersed that they never encountered any. Obi-Wan was amazed by the ease of their escape. Even when they were hailed by a warship for questioning, things went easily. Boba Fett only had to answer a few simple questions before he was allowed through the blockade. He wasted no time in sending the ship into hyperspace.

...

As Vader looked down at the dead bodies of the two clone troopers he had just strangled to death, he wondered what point it was to discipline them. They would just be replaced by two more identical weak-minded fools. When he made it back to Coruscant, he was going to have to talk with Palpatine about finding a better class of soldiers.

"Lord Vader," Almec shouted as he ran up to him. "I had my people analyze all the ship logs of recent arrivals and departures, and there is one that might pique your interest. The ship Slave I, which belongs to the bounty hunter Boba Fett, was on the planet for just a matter of hours. He departed recently, shortly after Satine would have been taken from here."

I should have known, Vader said to himself. He had all the information he needed to guess what Obi-Wan would have done, but he hadn't been able to put all the pieces together.

"Do we know if anyone was seen with Boba Fett. I need to know if he pulled this off by himself."

"I have the information on how this entire operation went down," Almec revealed nervously.

"And how were your men able to deduce that?"

When Almec took a deep breath, Vader could tell something was up. The man had a look of fear on his face that Vader would not have ever expected to see. "When Boba Fett arrived here, he had Obi-Wan with him. I know this because when Obi-Wan left him alone to scout the prison, he came and offered to sell us the Jedi."

Almec paused to await Vader's reaction. Knowing the man had a lengthy story to tell, he stayed silent as he was willing to hear him out. Almec was surprised there was no fury out of the Sith lord, and continued, talking nervously.

"While I know you desperately wanted Obi-Wan, I saw the chance for something much greater. I know he must be hiding out with a whole group of Jedi, and that what you really want is to find their location. Boba Fett didn't know where that was, as he had met the Jedi at a pre-arranged point in the middle of nowhere. It was then that I devised a plan. He promised us he would be able to put a tracker on Obi-Wan's ship that would allow us to find his find his secret sanctuary."

Taking a datapad out of his robe, Almec handed it over to Vader. The screen was showing the location of the Slave I against a map of the galaxy. Vader was perturbed the man who would go behind his back and do something like this, even though he agreed with his actions.

"You are taking an awful risk," he said to the prime minister. "This better work, or you will be joining the two clone troopers over there." Almec swallowed hard as Vader walked past him.

...

The Slave I exited hyperspace right in front of the Sith ship Obi-Wan had been using for the past year. The two ships docked, and Obi-Wan carried Satine to the Sith ship before giving Boba Fett his payment and sending him on his way. He waited for the Slave I to disappear into hyperspace before setting a course with his own ship.

Once they were safe in hyperspace, Obi-Wan tended to Satine. The medical facilities in the ship were limited, but they were enough to allow him to monitor her vitals. He was relieved to see she was okay and stable. He found an IV and hooked it up to her. That did wonders for reviving her, and she became lucid enough to talk with him.

"Where are we?" she asked.

"We are on a ship, traveling to Mustafar."

"Mustafar. I kept the location of your sanctuary secret. I didn't tell them anything."

"And that was a mistake. If I hadn't come and rescued you, they would have started killing your friends in order to force you to talk."

"And if they had to die to protect your sanctuary, then so be it. I couldn't let Vader find the last sanctuary of the Jedi. The nation needs you to overthrow the emperor and restore the Republic."

Obi-Wan felt heartbroken over what he had to tell her. "There is no sanctuary of the Jedi to protect, because there are no Jedi left. I am the last of them, and as the last Jedi, it is on me to defeat the Sith."

"And how are you going to do that?"

"I am going to go to Mustafar and wait for Vader to come to me." From the look on her face, he could tell Satine did not understand why he would do such a thing. "How is that going to happen? You're not going to reveal where you are to him, are you?"

"I have nothing to lose by doing so, and besides, he is tracking this ship right now. Boba Fett made a deal with the Mandalorians to give me up. He placed a tracker on you. By now, they have our trajectory and know where we are headed."

"When we get to Mustafar, I can help you set a trap for him."

"No, you will do no such thing. Vader is mine to fight alone. I have something else I need you to do."

"No!" Satine screamed. "I will not leave you alone to fight Vader. There is no telling what will happen. You are needed elsewhere. If we stay together-"

Satine drifted off to sleep after Obi-Wan pressed a button to inject a drug into her IV to cause her to sleep. She was getting agitated, and in her current state of health, that was not conductive to her healing. A few more hours of peaceful sleep, and she would be back to normal. He went back to the cockpit to see how much time they had until they reached Mustafar.