"Approaching signal's origin, stand by." Jack informed as he and the previous leave squad was flying in the Twilight. Just a few minutes ago Anakin's tracking beacon had gone off just shortly after he left.
In that short amount of time Ahsoka managed to gather the squad and were off in just a few minutes. He'd never admit it, but he was impressed with the Padawan's quick work at getting everyone together so quickly.
"How much longer?" Ahsoka asked.
"We'll be dropping out of Lightspeed in just a minute." Jack answered, flipping several of the switches above him.
"Get ready on the guns, Commander." Echo spoke up to Ahsoka, turning from the sensors. "Sensors are picking up several droid fighters approaching General Skywalker."
"Got it." Ahsoka responded, gripping the gun controls as they dropped out of Lightspeed. Once they were, it didn't take long to see the several fighters about to attack Anakin's still Jedi fighter, and were easy pickings to the Twilight's weapons.
"Cargo bay doors are open now." Jack said, speaking over the comms to Anakin. "I'd recommend getting inside while you still have the chance, sir."
"I'd love to, but R3's having a problem with the engines." The Jedi Knight responded, getting Jack's attention.
'First the lights, then the assassin droids, now the engines? And what happened to Anakin's hyperdrive ring?' Jack thought as Anakin's engines came to life and he began flying towards them. Jack now remained on a steady coarse as Ahsoka shot at the next wave of fighters, making small movements to avoid the fighters' shots as well as the two droid cruisers.
"Keep her steady, almost there." Anakin said as the two ships aligned, his attention set on the open hangar. Shortly after he managed to skid inside, going to his communicator when it finally stopped. "I'm in, go!"
"Denal, Rex, get the hyperdrive ready." Jack ordered, closing the cargo bay's doors as he sped up, heading for the frigates. "We're going right between those ships."
Seeing the freighter's path, the two cruisers began to move on one another, closing the gap between them. While his focus was more set on avoiding the fighters behind them, Jack was able to keep a path set for the cruiser's wings. As he approached, he had the lower wing fold up in time to spin upside down, the ship barely making it through as sparks went off where the hull's met.
With the fighters now cut off or destroyed, the squad had the open window they needed to make their escape. "Hit it Rex." Without another word, the clone pulled the hyperdrive lever and the ship took off, escaping the Separatists cruisers and their general.
"Escaping to empty space, give us ten minutes and we'll prep our next jump twenty after." Jack spoke as he got up from his seat and began to head for the cargo bay entrance. "Matchstick, take over for me."
"Got it kid." Matchstick responded, taking the pilot seat shortly after.
"And where are you going?" Ahsoka questioned, raising an eye-ridge at him.
"Well, Anakin's ship had engine problems." Jack said back, opening the door. "While you're all patrolling, I'll see what repairs are needed for the ship." He then closed the door behind him and walked down to the starfighter, the Jedi exiting already while the droid went through the process.
"Thanks for the save Jack." Anakin said to the boy, who waved his hand in response.
"It was nothing." Jack responded. "Ahsoka and Rex are up in the front. I'll check what went wrong with your ship while we're looking for the listening outpost the droids have."
"Thanks, although I much more blame Stubby then the ship." Anakin said back, heading up to the flight deck after the two passed.
Jack heard the droid beep sadly at that, getting his eyes to roll. "Yeah, yeah, whatever you say Klutz." Jack responded as he crawled under the ship and opened the engine plating. Hearing the droid roll away, he activated his listening device as he checked the ship's engine.
"I am entering your orbit now, General."
"Bingo." Jack grinned, hearing Gha's voice in the comms.
"I will be at your station shortly."
"All I have to do now is track that signal." Jack spoke to himself, groaning when he heard wheels rolling. "What is it Klutz?" R3 beeped in response, asking a question to the boy. "I mean, Artoo meant a lot to Anakin. It's difficult to replace something that's valuable to someone. And please don't interrupt me right now, I'm trying to both check the ship's engines and track a signal at the same time."
R3 beeped again, getting the boy to shrug. "Just something I put in Gha's ship while we were there. I can definitely confirm he's working for Grievous right now. And it sounds like he's heading to the outpost that's been listening in on our communications."
The astromech then beeped excitedly, making a request to him. "Well, I mean, if you really want to help can you bolt the systems down? I want to minimize the chance of getting shocked down." The mech then rolled over to the starfighter and plugged into it, working on it for a few seconds.
"It looks like the engines are almost perfectly fine." Jack commented as he worked. "What made you guys almost stranded earlier?" R3 beeped his answer, confusing Jack. "Lag? With a single starfighter, a Jedi grade one at that? One that's brand new? Forgive me, but that sounds like shrak." Jack earpiece then started to beep more frequently, getting him to smile. "The signal's almost been traced, just a little more and-"
Before he finished, R3's tampering had set off an energy spike, causing electricity to flow through the wires that were in Jack's hand. The volts themselves weren't nearly high enough to do more then give him a jolt, but the earpiece was going crazy over the shock. So much it overloaded and burned in his ear, nearly exploding as it fried his ear.
"AGGGHHHH! BLAST!"
The commotion was more then load enough to get the rest of the squad's attention, to which Anakin, Ahsoka, Rex and Denal ran out to the cargo hold. Getting down the stairs just in time to see Jack crawl from under the starfighter, clutching his right ear as he held in the pain. "What happened?"
"Nrgh, electrical failure." Jack responded, groaning as Denal and Rex helped him sit up. "The fighter's wiring fried the communicator in my ear, other than that no real injuries."
"Let's see it kid." Rex said, trying to get a better look at the injury. Jack complied, revealing the traces of blood coming down from it. Rex then saw and grabbed the small communicator, pulling it out and holding it between his fingers. "Yep, this would do it." Rex commented, seeing the mix of small twisted metal and blood covering it.
"Do you have any idea how this happened?" Anakin asked, the clones helping Jack up as he put his hand back over his right ear.
The boy looked over to R3, his eyes narrowing at the droid before looking back to Anakin normally. "Klutz here was supposed to keep the power down while I worked on the ship, sudden activation isn't common but I'd rather of not risked it. He messed up somewhere and it set off my communicator."
"You can't be sure of that." Ahsoka interjected, defending the droid. "Maybe he wasn't able to stop it, but what if he set it low enough to keep it from frying you completely."
"Ahsoka, this thing is a manufacturing disaster." Jack responded, pointing to the astromech. "I have never seen one fail so much at the most simple of tasks. I could get a protocol droid to do better than that hunk of shiny metal."
The astromech beeped sadly in response before rolling away, getting only a sympathetic look from Ahsoka. The Padawan turned back to Jack, giving him a light glare. "Great, now you're hurting R3's feelings."
"His feelings? His feelings? My ear just almost blew up-agh!" jack recoiled in pain as he grabbed his ear with both hands, the pain spiking from his volume.
"We should get you to the medical droid." Denal said, grabbing Jack and leading him out of the cargo bay and to the medical station set up.
"I seriously don't like that droid." Jack muttered.
"Yeah, none of us do."
"You're injury is stabilized, sir. But I'd recommend not going on a mission so soon." The medical droid spoke as Jack was armoring up, finishing putting the last of his gear on. The boy had bandage wrapping around his ear and up part of his forehead, keeping the damaged ear from bleeding or becoming contaminated.
"I'm still a soldier. I can't let something like a small hearing impairment from stopping me from serving." Jack responded, grabbing his helmet as he walked to the door. "Thank you for the patch up, doc. But I'll be heading out with the others."
"Of course, sir."
Walking out, Jack slightly cringed as his ear was ringing, annoying him with the constant sound. But he had to remain focused. While he was getting patched up, they received a signal from R2-D2. The droid was able to reveal the location of the listening post, and they were given orders to destroy it before the Separatists cracked his memory banks.
Heading into the cargo hold, he saw everyone getting ready, either loading up or setting their equipment up. The only ones not going were Echo and Matchstick, the two remaining on the ship for pickup once their mission was done. Looking to his left, he saw the last jetpack on the ground and took it, setting it up with surprising familiarity and ease. Once done, he went down to weapons rack and grabbed a DC-15S rifle before his gaze stuck to the Magnaguard staff.
He hadn't gotten rid of the staff after getting it from the droid, and had actually made some small adjustments to it. He was able to get more power to the electrical points, but at the cost of its resistivity of lightsabers on the grip of it. Shrugging, he placed his rifle on his lower back before grabbing the staff, locking it to the right of his back just away from his jetpack to give him mobility.
"How you holding up, kid?" Rex asked, walking up to jack.
"Mostly fine." Jack responded, turning to the captain. "My ear's likely going to be deaf for a couple of days. But the droid said it'll heal up by the time we head back to Coruscant."
"That's good. You all prepped?"
"All set and ready to go, sir."
"Good." Rex nodded before walking away. "Oh, and the commander wanted to see you."
"Oh, great." Jack whispered under his breath. A talk with Ahsoka isn't fun when he knows she's mad at him. Which in this situation he feels it isn't right since he's the one who got hurt from it. He nearly had lost his ear and all R3 got was a light scolding from him. He could've been a lot, a LOT, worse.
Heading over to the Padawan, he groaned as he saw her going over checks on R3. "We're bringing Klutz along with us?"
"We'll need Goldie to open secured hatches and access the station's computer for us." Ahsoka explained, standing up. "Oh, and Jack, you get to carry him."
"What?" Jack questioned as she smirked and walked away. "Hold up now, I'm supposed to carry the decretive tin that nearly blew up my ear?"
"Well originally it was Rex, but I figured you were far more qualified for the part." She said back, watching as his shoulders slumped. "And hey, it'll be a way for you two to get closer."
"Last time that happened I almost went completely deaf in that same ear." Jack muttered as he looked down to the droid, who beeped excitedly at him. "Of course this happens to me."
Before long, the squad was fully ready and the listening station was just below the ship. Matchstick had the cargo hold door open, revealing the cloudy and stormy weather there was. "Follow me, boys!" Ahsoka shouted over the raging winds, running and jumping off the Twilight.
While the rest jumped off on their own, Jack awkwardly wobbled till he simple fell. Carrying R3 drastically impaired his mobility, something he very much distasted. But he was at least accepting towards the fall, enjoying the sound blowing past his helmet, on the left side anyways.
The fall had nearly lasted for a full two minutes before they all landed, the Jedi using the Force to stop their fall and the clones activating their jetpacks. Jack was the last to land, almost falling over backwards from the shift of weight thanks to R3. He then looked over to the clones and pointed at Fives. "Next time, you're lugging this astromech around." Each of the clones laughed, enjoying the boy's struggle.
Anakin then activated his lightsaber and cut a hole through the listening post's hull, giving them the entrance in. While the clones went in first, Jack wobbled to the hole while Ahsoka watched with a smirk. "Get that shrak eating grin off your face." Jack said as he passed by her and down the hole, nearly falling over again upon landing. He then disconnects R3 from him, placing the mech down before moving to give Ahsoka the room she needed to jump down.
Once set, the squad started heading towards the staging point of the mission, a three-way corridor that was patrolled by two lone battle droids. Jack was the first to reach them, grabbing the one by its neck before pulling with all his strength, ripping its head clean off its body. Rex aided him by shooting the second droid, and they moved on after Jack threw the head away and kept moving.
Finding a console, Goldie plugged into it and projected an image of the flying listening post. "We are here." Rex started, pointing towards their section of the massive station. "The reactors are 30 levels below us, there."
"Ahsoka, you take the squad and blow up those reactors." Anakin ordered as he took the pack of explosives off his back and handed it to Ahsoka. "Gravity will do the rest. We'll meet in the landing bay."
"Where are you going?" Ahsoka asked, taking the pack and securing it on her back.
"I'm just going to have a little look around." Anakin responded as he started to walk off.
"I hear there's an astromech here, I bet it'd be quite the coincidence to see you coming back with another one." Jack said, smiling under his helmet.
"Alright, let's move out." Ahsoka ordered, and the squad began to move through the station, finding the quickest route down to the reactors. About halfway down the station, Jack stopped and turned, seeing that R3 was missing. "Klutz is missing."
"What?" Ahsoka asked, the whole squad stopping. "Where is he?"
"I wouldn't have said he's missing if I knew where he was." Jack responded, rolling his eyes underneath his helmet. "I'll go find him, we'll catch up." Starting to head back, he could hear R3's beeping a few meters away, talking as if he was receiving orders from someone. That caused Jack's good ear to twitch, giving him a small sense of suspicion as he headed towards the beeping. "Hey Klutz, where are you?"
He then heard R3 beep in response before rolling out into view. "And why are you back here all by yourself? It shouldn't be hard to follow a squad of soldiers and a Jedi." R3 beeped an excuse out, one that Jack certainly didn't believe but didn't call out on him. "Yeah, well, try and keep up. Come on." Waving his shoulder to the direction of the squad, the astromech and soldier began to move once more, meeting up with the rest of the team just short of the reactor.
As they reached it however, a security alarm went off. And before they could enter a ray shield went up over the door, blocking their objective.
"We found the reactor room, sir." Rex informed over the comms. "The alarm triggered another security door, ray-shielded."
"This could take a while to bypass." Ahsoka added.
"Good luck with that." Anakin responded over the comms before cutting the connection.
"Go ahead, Goldie." Ahsoka said, taking the explosives pack off. "Make me proud." The astromech rolled up to the door's console and began to work.
"Oh, this is gonna be fun." Fives said, getting a slightly annoyed look from Ahsoka before they all turned back to the astromech.
As R3 started to work, the sound of droids marching was heard down the hall, gaining their attention. "Those droids are getting closer, sir." Denal said.
"Do you think R3 is going to open that door before we're riddled with blaster rounds?" Jack questioned, shrugging his shoulders.
"He's working on it." Ahsoka snipped back to him. "Patience, Jack."
The droids marching was getting louder and louder, and with each step the squadron was getting more antsy for the approaching battle. "I can always hot-wire it, sir." Denal brought up.
"Hurry up, Goldie."
"Hey, don't mean to be that guy but we're out of time." Jack said, raising his blaster towards the squadron of droids.
"Blast 'em!" The droids were the first to fire, attempting to use their numbers to their advantage. The others fired back shortly after and took cover while Ahsoka activated her lightsaber and would deflect the shots. The clones would have just enough cover to peak out quickly and fire in short bursts before going back into cover.
As the first droid was taken down, a door went over the ray shield, adding onto the problem. "I am really starting to hate that droid." Fives said as he and another clone fired at the droids taking one out before being forced back into cover.
"I'm thinking that Klutz really is trying to get us killed now." Jack responded, feeling the hair on his neck stand when a blast from behind just missed his head. Turning quickly, he fired back at a group of approaching super battle droids, alerting everyone else to their presence.
Knowing the larger droids were better shots, Ahsoka turned her attention towards them, parrying their shots and simply dodging the droids behind her. "Rex, droid poppers, now!" She ordered.
"Droid poppers!" Rex shouted as he threw one of the EMP grenades at the feet of the super battle droids, who all scrambled to attempt and blast it before it went off. They failed, resulting in the quick shut down.
Fives then threw at the regular battle droids, taking them down without much more resistance then a failed attempt to throw the popper back. With the action over, Jack sighed in relief as he stood up from his cover, the squad meeting at the center of the hall. "Well… that was something."
"We're going to have this whole station on us if we remain here too long." Rex concluded. "Denal, get on that console and open up the reactor room."
"What about Goldie?"
"I think we've had enough problems as it is." Jack responded to Ahsoka's question, getting a sharp look from the Jedi. "Look, that little punk messed me up already back then, and now he can't so much as open a door. This isn't rocket science Shorty, which I may remind you, R3 units should know!"
"They sent a child to destroy my station." Everyone's focus snapped at the cold and metallic voice that spoke from across the hall. The voice belonged to the notorious Kaleesh cyborg, General Grievous. The cyborg stood over seven feet in height, and with the removal of his cape revealed the two lightsabers on his frame's waist.
The situation was bad, something Jack was able to register right from the start. Grievous is known as the deadliest Jedi hunter in the galaxy, having claimed countless Padawans, Knights and even some of the best of Jedi Masters. And here they were, with only six soldiers and one Padawan learner.
No matter how he put it, the odds were not in their favor.
"The Republic must be running out of Jedi." Grievous said, laughing at the thought of a Padawan facing him.
"General Grievous." Jack spoke up, attempting to take the cyborg's attention off of Ahsoka, who was obviously going to be his main target. "You're much shorter than I was expecting." That simple got another laugh from the cyborg before it turned to a cough, a trait the general had for reasons he couldn't tell.
"He's just another tinny, boys." Ahsoka said, igniting her lightsaber in defiance. "Let's scrap him like the rest."
"No, Ahsoka wait!" Jack tried to call as he reached for the Padawan, missing her as she charged right at the cyborg as he activated a blue lightsaber. The two then clashed a single time before Grievous over powered her and knocked her to the side, stunning her from the strength behind it.
He and the clones then attempted to blast the general, all firing controlled at the same time. The cyborg however managed to deflect one of the shots back to a trooper, killing him before lunging towards all of them. From there, he landed and cut another clone across the chest before spinning and kicking the rest of the squad away.
Jack was the first to get back up, not even surprised at how easily the droid general defeated them. He wasn't a Jedi killer for nothing after all, one that can toe to toe with a Master at that. Seeing the towering cyborg approach Rex, Jack reached behind him and pulled off the Magnaguard staff. As the cyborg raised his saber and was about to cut down the unconscious clone, Jack was suddenly next to him.
Spinning the staff, Jack activated the electric ends and slammed one against the droid's head. Thanks to the electricity, the impact was immense to the general and sent him skidding away before his clawed feet pierced into the ground and stopped himself. "Ragh!"
"Sorry there tin man, but you're gonna have to try harder to kill my team." Jack said as he held the staff, spinning it before pointing it at Grievous.
The cyborg laughed darkly as he held his saber forward. "And am I to believe a single clone could take me down?"
"Don't have to beat you." Jack responded, seeing Ahsoka slowly coming back to consciousness. "Just stall you long enough to catch you off guard."
"You got one hit in, clone." Grievous spat, walking menacingly towards the boy, who was backing up away from the squad as he followed. "Something that will not happen a second time."
"Give me time, I'll surprise you."
Grievous then began to slash at jack, the boy using his staff to block the incoming strikes just in the nick of time. Being purely on the defense, he was being pushed back with each powerful swing. When he'd block a swing from his right, he had to instantly raise one of the ends up to parry another from the general. The pure ferocity that Grievous showed was beyond anything Jack had encountered before.
'I'd take a Rancor over this monster.' Jack thought as he dodged to the side, swinging his staff out in an attempt to hit Grievous' feet. The cyborg saw this and raised his foot up before slamming it on the ground, stopping the boy from even getting another attack out. With a single slash, grievous cut the staff in half, leaving Jack to leave both halves as he was now set solely on evasion.
Without thinking of countering, Jack was at least able to dodge without losing a limb. But he was completely on edge, adrenaline pumping in him faster than his body could follow. With every vertical swing he'd sidestep and just stop himself from trying to kick him, and with each horizontal he'd almost throw a punch before he realized what he was doing.
Jack was strong by human standards, but Grievous made him look like an infant in front of a storm. If he couldn't beat him by force, he'd have to use maneuverability. As the general was preparing a fight ending swing, Jack was suddenly flipping over Grievous, rolling away before landing on his feet and a single hand. The cyborg turned to glare intensely at Jack, noticing the jetpack that was still on his back. Unlike the clones, Jack kept his on, and it proved to be in his favor.
This however only acted as a means for Grievous to step up his game, as he pulled his second saber off of his waist and activated it, the emerald green contrasting the ultramarine blue. The general now started moving even faster still managing to keep up as Jack would use the jetpack to increase his evasion speed. Even when jack flew back across most of the hall, Grievous was able to lunge straight for him, closing the ten-meter gap in seconds.
Jack, seeing as he had little options, turned his back as Grievous sliced at him, his jetpack taking the brunt of the damage. Feeling it begin to overheat, he quickly disengaged it and spun, slamming it into Grievous' face and knocking him back. A second later the jetpack detonated, sending smoke everywhere as the detonation enveloped the cybernetic general. As Jack was about to run for Rex and the others, one of Grievous' clawed feet grabbed him by the chest.
"Why did I think that would work? Why?" Jack thought as the general showed full movement of his body and flipped backwards, slamming Jack to the ground. The impact alone knocked all the wind out of Jack, his back feeling that it was on the verge of breaking due to the power behind the cyborg. Grievous kept his foot down on Jack's chest, holding the boy down as his hands spun, the lightsabers turning into blurs from the pure speed.
"Any last words, boy?" Grievous asked, seeing Jack's face once his helmet was knocked off.
"Just a question." Jack said as he attempted to remove Grievous' talons off of him, expectantly getting no progress in response. When he knew it wouldn't work, he reached for his belt and pulled out a droid popper, holding it up to the cyborg as he armed it. "Explosions clearly don't work too well on you, but what about droid poppers?"
Truth be told, droid poppers did little more then stun the general's cybernetics, but in the heat of the moment the general flipped back once more and threw Jack back across the gap they covered, hitting him against the reactor room's door before he fell to the ground. The impact temporarily stunned Jack, his senses coming back just as Grievous stopped next to him.
He didn't even give Jack a word as he slashed down, attempting to cleave the boy in two with one swing. Before it landed, however, Ahsoka jumped forward and blocked the attack, stopping the saber mere inches from Jack's face. "Sorry to interrupt your playtime, Grumpy, but wouldn't you prefer a challenge?"
"That wouldn't be you." Grievous responded, the two now dueling with speed Jack could hardly follow. The only thing he could tell amongst the fight was that Ahsoka was completely being overwhelmed, forced back several steps upon each clash of blades.
As R3 rolled past them and beeped to Ahsoka, she would disengage from Grievous and run with the astromech into a droids storage unit. As Grievous watched them leave, he deactivated his lightsabers and began to walk towards the room, not even looking back to Jack and the remaining clones. They simply weren't worth Grievous' time, something Jack knew full well of.
Pushing himself up, Jack flinched and groaned as his chest had a sudden surge of pain filled his body. Lightly grabbing his side, he forced himself to stand up and stare at the room the general and Ahsoka ran in to. Jack normally isn't one to undermine people's powers when he's seen them, but he knows Ahsoka stands no chance in a straight up fight.
Looking to his cut staff, he saw that they were still active, the electricity sparking across the tips. "Oh, that should do something." He groaned as he walked and picked the two halves up, spinning them in his hands like batons. "Not my normal style, but better then a staff." Running off, Jack nearly stumbled when the pain spiked again. He had just noticed that two of Grievous' talons had pierced his armor, leaving small trails of blood to drip down his white armor. "Ah, that's just great."
Feeling the wounds out, he was certain the cyborg general didn't go deep to get anything important and continued to head for where Ahsoka and Grievous went, hiding behind cover when he heard the door open. Seeing R3 roll past seemingly without a scratch, Jack knew clearly that the astromech was working for Grievous. "That's why he set off the electricity, he was hoping he'd stop the signal without killing me outright. Huh, I almost feel proud for the piece of scrap."
He then clenched his fists as he turned back to the door, seeing it close and lock. "Don't worry Shorty." Jack said to himself as he put the two halves of the staff down and pulled the console's panel off, starting to hot-wire the controls. "I'm on my way."
As he was doing that, Ahsoka traversed the rows of shelves filled with droid parts, her lightsaber active as she prepared for a fight. She was completely on edge, having lost sight of Grievous after he ordered R3 to assure that the others didn't make it off. As she was about to step out of her cover, one of Grievous' hands had suddenly grabbed her by the throat, the other knocking her saber away and deactivating it.
Grievous had secured himself on the roof, somewhere the Padawan clearly hadn't expected. And it worked just as he had planned. Walking down the wall, he reached down and grabbed Ahsoka's lightsaber as he held Ahsoka off her feet effortlessly. Activating it, the emerald light brightened the area around them, revealing Grievous' golden eyes to the Padawan.
"Another lightsaber to add to my collection." Grievous gloated as he held it close to Ahsoka's face, the Togruta trying to break free with no success. "My spy droid, R3, has trapped your precious master. When I'm finished with you, he's next."
"You're wrong." Ahsoka responded, remaining defiant despite the situation. "He's gone by now, and he's going to blow up your precious spy station."
"Not this time." When Grievous spoke, there was a small tap on his shoulder, turning his attention away from Ahsoka and towards Jack, who's right arm was extended back, preparing to swing one of the two staff halves.
"Sup?" Swinging with all his strength, Jack's strike coupled with the cyborg's clearly caught off grunt and the added force of the electricity, he had managed to completely knock Grievous over. The attack was enough to release his grip on both Ahsoka and her saber, the Padawan recovering quickly as she was able to breath again.
Not finished, Jack impaled the right staff piece into Grievous' arm, pinning it to the ground and causing the electricity to flow through him. He then aimed the next piece to impale the general's chest, only for his arm to reach and grab Jack's, stopping him easily. Even with the added power, Grievous was able to move with enough focus to catch Jack and slowly crush the armor around his arm.
Before the damage could be harmful, Ahsoka activated her lightsaber and cut Grievous' hand off, allowing Jack to strike down and impale his other arm down. It wasn't the target, but it'd buy them some time. "What are you-?"
"Not now, that'll only keep him down for a few seconds!" Jack interrupted, pointing to Grievous using one of his feet to try and grab the staff halves in his arms.
Seeing this, Ahsoka nodded once and jumped for the nearby air vent, kicking it open and landing in it. As she turned to pull Jack up with the Force, he pulled out the droid popper he didn't use and primed it, throwing it down to the cyborg. Instead of saying anything, the two began to crawl through the vents by the time the popper went off.
"You all right?" Jack asked from behind, Ahsoka leading the way.
"Nothing then a potential bruise or two to worry about." Ahsoka responded. "And you?"
"Eh, he's pretty bad at acupuncture, so other than the clear back sized bruise I'll have and the two stab wounds? I'm good." Jack answered, getting a small laugh and headshake from the Togruta in front of him. "That was really risky, drawing Grievous off the others like that."
"And you're one to talk?" Ahsoka questioned back, causing Jack to thin his lip. He really didn't have any ground to stand on, other than trying to blame Ahsoka for the mess.
Before he could say anything, however, the whole station shook as the reactor blown up. Giving the signal that the mission was a success. "We'd better head for the hangar. Whether or not Anakin's still here, we need a ship."
"Right." Ahsoka responded, the two's crawling speeding up as they knew they only had so much time before the planet's gravity would start to crush the ship. Just after two minutes of said crawling, they arrived at a grate with space large enough for them to stand, the sounds of battle going off just on the other side. "How much you want to bet that's Master?"
"I don't make bets with obvious answers." Taking that answer, Ahsoka quickly cut a hole into the grate and kicked it away. Jumping, she landed on a vulture droid to make it a target for the other before jumping away. Cutting the second one's head off, she landed on the ground and quickly turned to use the Force to catch Jack, putting him on the ground.
Once he landed, Jack quickly bolted behind the cover with the clones, diving behind the crates as a shot barely missed him. "So good of you to join us, Jack." Rex said as he helped him up and handed him a 15S. "Missed you when we woke up."
"Eh, had problems to deal with." Jack responded, kneeling down and began firing at the super battle droids across the hangar. "What's the squad status?"
"Copper and Fritz are dead. Denal, Fives and I managed to plant the charges while the commander stalled Grievous." Rex explained, hitting two of the droids shortly after. The droids remained standing, until Denal's impossibly fast firing completely overwhelmed them and took them down. Something Jack forgot to take note of was how fast the clone could pull the trigger, firing with speeds equal to the Z-6 rotary cannon when he tries.
Firing, the squad was able to relieve some stress from the Jedi, who were busy protecting the shuttle as they waited for R2 to open the hangar. As Jack ducked under a shot, he turned and saw fuel cells behind them. "Anakin, there's a bunch of fuel cells over here."
"Get ready, Jack." Anakin responded, using the Force to throw one of the large cells towards the droid forces. Once it was close enough, jack focused solely on the flying cell before firing, hitting it dead on and causing a large explosion to go off. The rest of the droids were caught in the explosion, just in time for the hangar to start opening.
"Artoo did it."
"Of course he did."
"Let's move out." Rex ordered the troops, and everyone moved as quickly as they could to enter the Twilight. Jack instinctively went for the pilot seat, dropping his blaster as he sat down. Ahsoka took the copilot seat, and the rest of the men all situated themselves among the flight deck. Anakin, however, was in his starfighter as the Twilight took off, escaping the falling base.
"General; Skywalker's gotten into his starfighter, where's he going?" Rex asked, to which Ahsoka answered.
"He's going after Artoo."
"I'll be right back. Don't wait for me." Anakin ordered as the cargo bay doors opened, allowing him to fly out. Jack kept the ship hovering where it was, waiting patiently for the moment that Anakin would return. And after several minutes of painful silence, Anakin landed back in the freighter, Artoo aboard. "We're here, get us out of here."
"With pleasure." Jack responded, kicking the Twilight to its highest speed and leaving the planet's orbit. A minute later, the Knight and astromech entered the flight deck, and Jack smiled as the droid beeped happily at everyone. "Good to see you too little buddy."
"Oh, I missed you Artoo." Ahsoka said, getting out of the copilot seat and hugging the astromech.
"She was the one who replaced you the quickest." Jack quickly added as Anakin sat down. Jack's face them met the panel as Ahsoka used the Force to push his head down. "That's abuse of your power!" The action caused a spread laugh around the flight deck, and much to his amusement, Jack himself laughed as well. Possibly the adrenaline still in, but he was just glad they made it out as they did.
That changed after they had made their report to Obi-Wan, who as a hologram, looked very upset at Anakin. "So let me get this straight, Anakin. You risked the mission, all of your men, even your Padawan to save a droid."
"Artoo found the listening post, and he saved our lives." Anakin countered. "We couldn't just leave him there, Obi-Wan."
"Oh, Anakin." Obi-Wan sighed. "One day…" He then cut the communication, leaving the room silent.
Jack then rested his back on his chair, sighing in relief. "Oh man, I don't think I've ever been so stupid in a mission before."
"Maybe, but you did some good back there." Anakin said, prepping the hyperdrive. "You took Grievous' attention off the others and helped Ahsoka stall him so the mission could be completed."
"Correction: SAVED Ahsoka."
"And you have my thanks for that."
"Eh, no problem." Jack said back, keeping Ahsoka from speaking up. "She saved me from that crazy cyborg as well." He then looked over his shoulder to the Togruta, smiling slightly. "So we'll call it even for today. Sound good, Shorty?"
"Sure thing, Jacky boy."
"And you ruined the moment." Jack groaned, getting another round of laughs as the hyperdrive activated, their coarse set back for the Resolute.
'Just another day in the Republic.'