Hey there, my delightful readers, I have come to deliver to yet another new chapter, and a recommendation alongside it. Just as I recommended Dragon Ball Abridged last time, today I'll be recommending YuGiOh Abridged, probably one of the most influential and well-known abridged series out there. If you haven't watched it, then do yourself a favor and fix that right now, or rather, right after you finish this chapter.
Walking a Tightrope Chapter 6 (V. 1)
No plan survives first contact with the enemy.
Terror in Space!
Throughout the galaxy, Republic fleets have been suffering catastrophic losses from Separatist surprise attack which leave no survivors. Rumors circulate of a terrifying new superweapon under the Separatist's command. Jedi Master Plo Koon has been sent, along with his fleet, to hunt down this mystery weapon.
However, shortly after engaging the mysterious Separatist vessel, all contact was lost. Now, Jedi General Obi-Wan Kenobi, along with his Padawan, Nitai Zeama, have been put in charge of guarding a Republic supply convoy, in the hopes of protecting it from assault from the deadly vessel.
The door hissed open as Nitai walked into the communications room alongside Obi-Wan. The two of them had been standing on the bridge of their cruiser, awaiting new orders for deployment. It had been a while since the mission to rescue the kidnapped son of Jabba the Hutt, and luckily the final portion of the mission was rather leisurely, simply picking up Master Yoda before journeying to Tatooine to collect Anakin and Ahsoka. Unfortunately, he hadn't had much chance to talk to his fellow Padawan on the journey back, since almost as soon as they arrived back on the Republic cruiser they were informed that they would shortly be separated as their respective Masters returned to their fleets. He and Obi-Wan had been waiting at their staging grounds for a few days when a clone trooper had told them that they were being hailed on a direct frequency from Coruscant.
Already present were holographic projections of Master Windu, Master Yoda, and Chancellor Palpatine, and they were quickly joined by projections of Anakin and Ahsoka. "Chancellor, Masters, we recently received a transmission from Master Plo Koon. He reported that he had discovered the Separatist weapon, and was moving to engage, however, his transmission was cut short and we have had no further contact with him despite sending repeated hails. The absence of distress beacons indicates that his fleet was…that his fleet was destroyed like the others." Anakin reported, pausing slightly as he and Ahsoka shared a look, the young Togruta looked particularly distressed at the news. "We are about to prepare a rescue mission."
"Hasn't clone intelligence reported that this weapon never leaves any survivors?" The chancellor asked.
"The Separatists are being unusually tidy, they don't want any witnesses." Obi-Wan added. "Tragic are these losses, but prevent more, we must." Master Yoda said.
"We will reassign all our battlegroups to guard our supply convoys, including yours Skywalker." Master Windu spoke up. "I'm afraid we can't risk any more ships with a rescue mission."
"Wait!" Ahsoka suddenly interrupted, it was clear that it had been difficult for her to remain silent throughout the entire briefing, it finally must have gotten too much to bear. "Just because there haven't been any survivors before, doesn't mean there won't be any this time." She said, while a part of Nitai did agree with her assessment, another part also believed that she might have just been hoping in vain that Master Plo might have survived, although he wasn't entirely certain why.
"Boldly spoken for one so young." The chancellor said as Ahsoka suddenly stepped back, doubtlessly intimidated by having all eyes on her and also knowing that she had spoken when she wasn't supposed to. "She is learning from Anakin." Obi-Wan said, somewhat amused at how much the young Togruta reminded her of his former Padawan.
"Excuse my Padawan. We will deploy as you have instructed Master." Anakin said, before his hologram faded out along with the other projections. Nitai hissed in sympathy, he recognized the tone that Anakin used, he'd been on the receiving end of it on more than a few occasions. That was the 'you just disobeyed a direct order from your teacher, and now you're going to get a talking too' tone.
"Ahsoka seems very attached to Master Plo, do they know each other well?" Nitai asked as he and Obi-Wan returned to the bridge, where they then informed the navigators of the location of the convoy that they would be linking up with to protect. "Hmm, if I recall properly, Master Plo was the one who discovered Ahsoka while on a mission to the Togruta homeworld of Shili. It's not uncommon for younglings to become close friends to the Jedi who first bring them to the Temple. I wouldn't be surprised if Ahsoka feels quite attached to him." Obi-Wan said.
"Ah, no wonder she seemed so desperate to try and get a rescue mission approved." Nitai said with a nod, however as they arrived and began to maneuver their cruisers to set up a defensive formation around the supply ships that they would be escorting he began to think, his left hand raising and unconsciously stroking his right cheek, a tic that nearly all of his species shared. He hadn't known Ahsoka and Skywalker for very long, but from what he had heard from the clones he had spoken to, Skywalker didn't seem like the type to leave a man behind, even if it seemed hopeless, and he also had a habit of 'creatively interpreting' the orders that he was sometimes given. Well he supposed he'd just have to wait and see, things were out of his hands now.
A short time later Nitai was staring out one of the bridge windows alongside Obi-Wan and Commander Cody. "Our ships are in defensive formation sir." Cody reported as he turned to the two Jedi.
"Very good, Commander, we'll check on Anakin's progress." Obi-Wan said as he and Nitai walked over to a screen, which flickered to life, showing Admiral Yularen and Captain Rex. "Admiral, how goes the escort?"
"Convoys are proceeding on schedule, general. No sign of enemy activity." Yularen responded. "And where's Skywalker?" Obi-Wan asked. "The General felt a redeployment of this fleet would increase our defensive perimeter." "Thank you, Admiral, that will be all." Obi-Wan said as the screen powered down and he turned to face Cody and Nitai while raising a hand to his chin. "Problem sir?" Cody asked, noting the concerned look on Obi-Wan's face. "Anakin has just redeployed himself, again." Obi-Wan sounded quite annoyed, as if this was a constant problem, and his mood probably wasn't improved all that much by the pleased grin on Nitai's face.
"It seems Skywalker has a penchant for this type of behavior. Say, Master, do you think you could send me on a mission with him some-" "Not any time soon, I already have trouble dealing with just one of him, and I imagine Ahsoka will probably take after him too, given time. One is enough, two I can handle, but three of him might just drive me mad." Obi-Wan said, cutting off his Padawan's sentence before he could even finish, before shuddering at the thought of trying to wrangle more than one Anakin.
"Come on, let's go see if we can get him to return to his fleet." Obi-Wan said wearily as he and Nitai returned to the communications room. After a few minutes their signal got through, and as expected, a hologram of Anakin and Ahsoka popped up, the two of them were seated and if Nitai was a betting man, he would have bet that meant that they were in the freighter that had been dubbed the Twilight by Skywalker.
"Anakin, where are you?" Obi-Wan sighed. "Oh, hello Master, we uh, made a quick stop in the Abregado system." Anakin said, and Nitai had to give him points for at least trying to lie under the circumstances, even if the lie was unbelievably blatant, that took confidence. "A rescue mission I suppose, you had other orders." Obi-Wan scolded before Ahsoka spoke up.
"It was my idea Master Obi-Wan." "Oh, I'm sure." He said dryly before turning his attention back to Anakin. "Have you found any survivors?"
"No, you were right, the Separatists don't want any witnesses." Anakin said, disappointment evident in his voice. "That's all the more reason for you to rejoin the defensive escorts. We need you Anakin, if you don't hurry then you'll miss the rendezvous point with the fleet." Obi-Wan said. "Understood Master, we're on our way." Anakin replied before the hologram flickered out of existence.
"Nitai, you go out and keep an eye on the bridge, I must contact the chancellor and Master Yoda." Obi-Wan said, Nitai nodded in response before walking out onto the bridge. "Cody, how goes the convoy?" "Everything is going as planned, Commander, no sign of enemy ships." Cody reported as the two of them stared out at the ships as they flew through the void of space.
Several Days Later
Nitai had been quite pleasantly surprised to learn that not only had Master Plo survived, but that Anakin and Ahsoka had actually located the Separatist ship, and as a result of their success the Senate had commissioned a special strike force specifically to hunt it down. The strike force would consist mostly of Anakin's fleet. Anakin's plan was to take a squadron of bombers and take out the command bridge of the ship, hopefully putting an end to General Greivous. Obi-Wan had told Nitai some stories about the fearsome cyborg General, and even that was enough to make Nitai shiver.
Nitai was currently standing on the bridge, watching the progress of the cruisers. He felt Obi-Wan enter the bridge, and only spoke up when his Master was a few feet away. "Any news on where Grievous might be next, Master?" He asked curiously.
"He's attacked a group of medical transports, we believe that his next target will be the Kaliida Shoals medical station near the Naboo system. Anakin will be taking his bombers ahead of us through a shortcut, with any luck they'll arrive and disable the ship before we do, I wouldn't want to risk our cruisers getting hit by that ion cannon." Obi-Wan said as the hangar opened up on one of the cruisers and a squadron of bombers flew out, soon followed by a Jedi starfighter. Nitai scowled at the thought of someone being willing to deliberately target a medical station, it was a viable and effective strategy, but there was something supremely distasteful about killing those who could hardly defend themselves.
"I assume that is Master Plo's ship." He said as he watched the starfighter fall into position behind the bombers. "Correct, he'll be providing support, we'll be taking a longer route around the nebula that Anakin plans to cut through, and Grievous will be doing the same. We hope to arrive before him, but I consider that unlikely." Obi-Wan responded before bringing up a communicator and patching in to Anakin's communication frequency. "I hope you know what you're doing Anakin."
"Well if I don't, I won't be around to hear the 'I told you so'." Anakin said, causing Nitai to chuckle slightly. "That's reassuring." Obi-Wan said sarcastically. "But you take your shortcut, and we'll take the long way, but you'd better be there before I arrive." "We'll be there Obi-Wan." Anakin said confidently.
"Ahsoka, keep an eye on your Master and try to make sure he doesn't do anything too crazy." Nitai said, patching in to the same frequency. "And R2, you keep an eye on Ahsoka to make sure that she doesn't try anything crazy either." He added, getting an affirmative series of beeps from R2.
"Don't worry Red, I'll make sure to be careful. Besides, Anakin requested that I be his gunner, I'm sure he wouldn't do anything that would put his precious Padawan at too much of a risk." Ahsoka responded jokingly before the communication was cut off so that the rest of shadow squadron could call in.
Nitai only raised a brow as the bombers and starfighter jumped to hyperspace before turning to Obi-Wan. "…Red? Would it be too much to ask for something a bit more memorable?" Obi-Wan just chuckled. "In my experience nicknames tend to stick, whether we want them to or not, I suppose you'll just have to get used to it." Nitai just sighed at his Master's words as the stars stretched out in front of them and the cruisers jumped to hyperspace.
Some time later, while Nitai was watching the blue, white, and black blurs streak by outside, they received a communication from Admiral Yularen. Nitai turned and walked over to the screen where Obi-Wan was already waiting. "General, the medical station reports that fifty percent of the patients have been evacuated."
"That's not good enough." Obi-Wan said as he stroked his beard, frustration creeping into his voice. "Not wholly bad, but still a far way from good." Nitai agreed.
"General Skywalker still has a chance to catch Grievous." Admiral Yularen said. "If he does, we have to be ready." "Yes sir." And with that, the communication cut off once again.
"So, Master, what's the plan?" Nitai asked as he followed Obi-Wan back to the main portion of the bridge. "Hopefully with the control bridge disable and Grievous dead, the ship won't be able to fire its ion cannon. We'll still have to worry about the rest of its armaments, but the fleet should be able to take it out."
"…And if we aren't able to take out Grievous along with the ion cannon?" Nitai enquired. "Then we'll have to settle for knocking that ship out of commission, there will be other opportunities to get Grievous." Obi-Wan answered. Nitai didn't even bother to ask what would happen if they weren't able to take out the ion cannon, because he already knew the answer to that. The cruisers were far too cumbersome to avoid the cannon's blast, if Anakin's mission failed, then the cruisers would be sitting ducks.
Eventually sirens began to wail, calling all clones to their battle stations. "We're dropping out of hyperspace, scans are picking up that the Malevolence is already in the system, along with Skywalker!" One of the clone navigators shouted.
As the blur of hyperspace was replaced with the star-studded void of realspace Nitai and Obi-Wan were greeted with the sigh of the Malevolence. The ship was absolutely massive, larger than any that Nitai had ever seen before. But thankfully, a good portion of it was damaged, and the massive circular ion cannons on both sides had been completely destroyed. "They did it." He said, letting out a sigh of relief as the trio of Republic cruisers began to approach the damaged Separatist ship.
"Anakin, do you copy?" Obi-Wan said as they opened the communication frequencies. "I'm here." Anakin responded almost immediately. "Congratulations, it looks like your mission was a success." Obi-Wan said happily.
"Partially, but Grievous is still alive. The battle was pretty rough on my men, we're heading for the medical station." Anakin's tone seemed notably downcast, especially considering the confidence he had displayed when he first started the mission.
"We'll take it from here, you get your men some rest, we'll call when we need you." With that Obi-Wan closed the communication channels and directed his attention towards the crippled Malevolence. "Alright, let's finish what Anakin started, ahead full." He ordered, and Nitai watched as they drew closer and closer to the injured ship, the numerous laser cannons opening fire on the ship as they got within range.
Despite the best attempts by the Separatist ship to escape, its engines were too heavily damaged, and the Republic cruisers gradually began to gain ground, and with every passing second more and more of their lasers began to impact against the damaged ship's shields. However, the ship's hull was remarkably thick, and even in its damaged state it could still take quite a beating, and while they were doing increasing damage to the engines, the main body of the ship was turned away from them, and as a result still relatively shielded from their fire. Nitai stood on the bridge alongside Obi-Wan, Plo Koon, and admiral Yularen, watching as the massive Separatist vessel grew ever closer.
"Commander, what is the damage to the enemy ship?" Obi-Wan asked one of the clone officers.
"She's lost her primary shields and stabilizers, but the ship is so massive it can take all the fire our cannons can give it." The clone reported
"We must summon reinforcements if we are to have any chance of putting that ship down for good." Plo Koon said, and Obi-Wan seemed to consider it for a moment.
"That's why I'm here Master Plo." A familiar voice spoke up, causing the four of them to turn around to see Anakin and Ahsoka walking onto the bridge.
"Anakin, were you able to contact Master Luminara?" Obi-Wan asked.
"Yes Master, she's busy with a fleet of Separatist reinforcements nearby. She won't be able to give support until she's turned them away." He informed the gathered Jedi and Admiral.
"Then I suppose we'll have to make do with what we have." Obi-Wan sighed as their ship released yet another volley of cannonfire towards the rear of the Separatist ship. As the everyone else was focused on the enemy ship, Nitai sidled up next to Ahsoka. "So…he really led you through a nesting ground filled with giant space monsters?" He whispered excitedly. "Were they cool?"
"Cool?" Ahsoka asked incredulously. "Those things nearly swallowed us whole." She said. "Yeah, but they didn't." Nitai responded, and the Togruta just groaned. His enthusiasm about the rest of the galaxy was endearing at some times, but at others it was almost maddening, he seemed to find the idea of actually flying amongst a hoard of massive nebula mantas charming, rather than the absolutely horrifying experience it had been for her.
Before he could ask any more questions about her encounter with the massive manta, Obi-Wan spoke. "Admiral, status report." "They're not attempting to jump to hyperspace, their hyperdrive must be damaged." Admiral Yularen reported.
"This is our chance, all ships target the bridge, maximum firepower." Obi-Wan ordered, there was a brief pause as the ships readjusted their targeting to focus on the bridge, but when they resumed firing the effect was immediate, as several explosions could be seen on bridge's superstructure.
"Sir, we're picking up a signal near the enemy vessel." One of the clones reported. "Something just dropped out of hyperspace."
"Enemy reinforcements?" Anakin asked. "No sir, it looks like a…Naboo ship." Even the clone seemed confused by his own words, and the assembled Jedi all shared a confused look before Obi-Wan turned towards the gunners. "Gunners, stand down!" He ordered, and the sound of cannons quickly died coming from their ship, the silence seemed almost deafening, since Nitai had gotten so used to the sound of constant fire, though the cannons of the other ships continued to fire their sound was blocked out by the airless void of space. "What in blazes are they doing here?" Obi-Wan asked.
"Open up communications." Anakin ordered.
"Yes sir." The clone said before typing in a few commands at his station. "Naboo cruiser, identify yourself."
There was a brief pause before a female figure appeared above the imagecaster. "This is Senator Amidala." She said, and Anakin's response was immediate. "Padme? What are you doing out here?" He asked, fear and concern creeping into his voice.
"I was sent on a special mission. The Senate was told the Banking Clan wanted to negotiate a treaty." She explained. "Get out of there as fast as you can." Anakin said immediately after she had finished speaking. However, the Naboo vessel soon stopped moving, and actually began to reverse its direction. "Padme, what's happening?" Anakin asked.
"I'm being pulled inside the droid vessel by a tractor beam." She said as she looked around and fiddled with her controls, probably trying to find a way to increase power to her engines in the hopes of breaking out of the tractor beam's grip. "I will not be made a Separatist bargaining chip. Continue your attack, you must destroy this monstrous ship!" She said, determination burning in her eyes. Nitai's eyes widened in surprise at her conviction, not many people would have been willing to sacrifice their own life, especially on such sudden notice.
Anakin clenched his fist and shut his eyes before taking a deep breath and opening them and turning to Admiral Yularen. "Admiral, order all ships to stop firing." Yularen simply nodded in response before going to relay the orders. The other Jedi simply looked at Anakin with concern.
As the hologram of Senator Amidala faded, Anakin turned and began to walk off the bridge. "Where do you think you're going?" Obi-Wan asked as he followed his former Padawan.
"Somebody has to save her skin." Anakin responded, trying his best to maintain his usual cocksure attitude, although Nitai could tell from the tightness in his voice that he was much more concerned than he let on.
"I thought you might say that." Obi-Wan said with a slight grin, it seemed that even though Anakin may have gotten older, some things about him never changed.
"There he goes again, craving adventure and excitement." Master Plo said. "You get used to it." Ahsoka said heading to the command center in the rear of the bridge. Master Plo's gaze then turned to Nitai who just shrugged and gave a wry grin. "Adventure and excitement are why I left home in the first place, but I think I'll let Skywalker and Kenobi sort this out on their own, I'd probably just get in the way. Besides, they had that look on their face that they get when they're about to do something crazy, and I don't think I'm at the level where I can completely keep up with one of their harebrained schemes yet." He and Master Plo then followed Ahsoka, and when they reached the command center they sent a message to Master Luminar, with a hologram of the Jedi Master appearing shortly afterwards.
"Master Plo, Padawans." She said, bowing to the trio of Jedi. "Where are Masters Skywalker and Kenobi?" She asked. "Apparently, Senator Amidala of Naboo was lured here with false information and was captured by the Separatists. Kenobi and Skywalker have gone to infiltrate the ship and retrieve her, for the time being we've stopped our assault."
"Another bold strategy of Skywalker's devising, I presume." She responded, and Nitai was silently thankful that he hadn't been paired with Skywalker, he didn't think he'd be able to keep up with all these crazy schemes the Jedi Knight came up with. "That's my Master." Ahsoka said happily, and Nitai wondered if Jedi and Padawans were sorted together by degree of insanity or willingness to dive headfirst into danger without thinking.
"Once they make it off the Malevolvence we'll need reinforcements to finish it off." Master Plo said. "I'm on my way, Master Plo." Luminara replied, her holographic projection fading out as Admiral Yularen walked up behind them.
"We're receiving a transmission from inside the Malevolence, I believe it's the Senator." He said.
"Patch her through to General Skywalker and General Kenobi." He said as they made contact with the two Jedi Generals. They listened in as Anakin spoke to the Senator before he directed a question to them. "Ahsoka, how can we get to the Senator?"
"According to our scans there's a large, open area in the center of the ship. It should be halfway between the two of you." Ahsoka said as she looked at the readout of the ship that was on one of the scanners.
"But be careful when approaching it. If my hunch is correct a ship of that size would probably need a rail system to keep every part of it supplied, so that open area is probably where all of the lines run through, it's probably going to be hazardous and have quite a few droids running around." Nitai chimed in.
"We'll be careful, did you hear that Padme?" Anakin asked. "I'll be there." The senator replied before their connection was shut off.
"We should get the ships into attack position so that we can resume firing immediately once the Senator has been returned. Admiral, could you see to that?" Plo Koon said as he turned his attention to Admiral Yularen.
"Right away sir, I'll tell the other cruisers to get back into attack formation, they've drifted out of position a bit since we stopped firing." He said before turning to go and relay the orders to the other cruisers.
Plo Koon returned to the bridge, while Nitai and Ahsoka stayed in the command center so that they could receive transmissions from the ships once they had returned to position.
"Anakin seemed very concerned about this Senator, any idea why?" Nitai asked as he leaned over the holotable. "I haven't learned a whole lot about Anakin's past, but I did manage to learn that he and the Senator met during childhood and have been friends ever since." Ahsoka replied. That seemed to be a logical enough explanation for Nitai, he did know that Anakin had been taken in later than normal for Jedi training, so if he had bonded with the Senator when they were both young, before he'd joined the Jedi, then that bond likely would have persisted even despite the Order's general insistence that Jedi should try to avoid attachments.
It was a while before they received a message from the other two cruisers, but when they did they both headed up to the bridge. "The ships are in attack formation. Any news from Master Skywalker?" Ahsoka asked.
"No, the droids are jamming our transmissions." Plo Koon said. "Well then we need to give him more time." Ahsoka said, but Master Plo shook his head slightly. "I'm not sure we can." While it may have seemed cold, Nitai could understand the Master's concern, if Grievous managed to get his hyperdrive repaired then not only would he escape, but his ship would likely be repaired as well, and the mission would be considered a failure.
However, shortly afterwards Obi-Wan's voice came over the communications channel. "This is General Kenobi, we have departed the ship with the Senator, and are being pursued, you are free to open fire." The response from Plo Koon was immediate.
"All batteries, open fire." He ordered, and the ships immediately responded, letting loose volley after volley of blue laser fire, primarily directed at the Malevolence but also aiming at the fighters which were pursuing the Twilight, forcing them to take evasive maneuvers.
"General, scans indicate that the enemy's hyperdrive is engaging." One of the clones reported. "Focus fire on the engines, we can't let that ship escape." Master Plo ordered, however as he did so the ship began to pull out of range, but something was off.
"Uhh, why are they turning towards the moon?" Nitai asked as the ship began to pick up speed, however instead of aiming for some point in space it was continuing to turn in the direction of a small, barren moon. His question went unanswered as the ship continued to speed up, drawing closer and closer until eventually a white light pierced the darkness as it impacted against the surface of the moon at incredibly velocity.
"I'll bet that's Anakin's handiwork." Ahsoka said, looking incredibly proud at what her master had managed to pull off, and Nitai was inclined to agree, only Skywalker would have had the mind to do something like that. There was a brief pause as everyone seemed to take in what had happened, before the clones started to break into cheers and applause at the destruction of the vessel which had been responsible for so many Republic casualties.
"Looks like we at least won't have that ship to worry about. I just hope they'll give us some down time after this, I could use some rest at the Temple." Nitai said with a relieved smile.