Usually The Resolute's hangar bay would seem cavernous and impersonal, a large, grey-walled construct filled only with the ship's complement of fighters and little else. Today, however, it was brimming with life and overflowing with activity. The recent planetary invasion had taken its toll on the cruiser's fighters; many had been damaged and were in need of repair. Both non-commissioned clone mechanics and regular ship crew were working ceaselessly at the damaged ships, causing plumes of sparks every time they welded, while 'mech droids weaved their way through the jungle of salvaged ship parts, exposed pipes, sparking wires and oily patches on the deck.
Standing out slightly from the plethora of smaller ships was 'The Twilight' a spice smuggling freighter, which had been 'appropriated' for republic use by Anakin some months earlier. It now served as his own personal errand ship and was almost like a pet project for him. He was constantly, as he was now, tinkering with its inner workings, modifying or improving them.
His current project found him trying to repair the ship's wing tip searchlights, which had taken a hammering by space debris recently. He sat cross-legged on the edge of the long side-wing with a ball of wires in one hand and a soldering iron in the other. Underneath him Artoo waited as impatiently as a 'mech droid could make known, constantly emitting bleeps. Beside Artoo and staring up at Anakin stood Rex. The clone captain stood not in his regular suited up Mark I armour, but the recently issued red GAR off-duty fatigues. Only a small blue stripe on the upper sleeve marked him as a captain now. He had his arms crossed in front of him and was radiating very mild displeasure.
"You sure you don't want me or some of my boys along general? Ryloth's still not the most friendly of places to be. Those desert beasts'd make short work of a Jedi, even one of your skill, sir."
Anakin didn't look up from the mess of wires in his hand, and replied,
"I'm aware of that Rex, but I really don't want to attract attention to ourselves, were doing a little informed snooping and wandering around with troopers is a dead giveaway."
Rex uncrossed his arms and gestured with his hands to emphasise his response,
"Then let me come along wearing normal gear, no one knows what we clones look like under the tin cans anyway. It's supposed to be my job to keep you safe, which I can't do when you're running around by yourself. I know what kind of trouble you keep getting yourself into. Especially if it's slavers again."
Anakin let out a little "Aha" and isolated two wire ends and soldered them together, once attached, he pushed all the wires back into the exposed section of the wing and replaced the covering panel. He finally looked up at Rex an gave him a serious look,
" And don't think I don't appreciate all the times you've pulled me out of those messes. But this is something I need to do by myself."
Rex crossed his arms again as one of his eyebrows raised,
"Ahsoka's going, she tends to cause more situations than you do. Your partnership tends to have a destructive quality to it."
Anakin uncrossed his legs and swung them over the edge of the wing,
"Truer words rarely spoken Rex, but I need to take her with me. She took the death of her squad pretty badly, need to do some grownup mentoring, Kenobi-style."
Rex relaxed his stance a little and lowered his arms,
"Fair enough, sir. Can't imagine foisting her off on us for a while would work. Even if losing brothers is pretty much hard and happens far too often, I wouldn't trust any of us to give sage advice or the right comforting words. Etiquette wasn't a terribly important subject of Kamino, not even for those prima-donna commandos and ARC's."
Anakin let out a slight sigh of relief, having Rex understand would prevent some hassle.
"Thanks Rex, knowing us you'll be meeting us down there to extract us sooner rather than later. Do keep an open channel to Ahsoka and I."
Rex stood slightly more upright and delivered a curt nod.
"Of course sir, I'll keep my ears open for trouble… Speaking of trouble, here comes some now."
Rex nodded and gestured to the other end of the hangar behind Anakin. He turned to see Ahsoka gingerly weaving her way through the crowded hangar. She was dressed in her usual outfit, foregoing the normal Padawan dress code, and on her utility belt her lightsaber was fastened securely. Anakin reached out gingerly in the Force to sense her emotions. He was careful not to reach out enough for her to notice; for fear that she would take offence on the intrusion. To Anakin, Ahsoka seemed to be outwardly calm and collected, and thankfully he didn't sense an overwhelming amount of grief in her, but her usual feisty determination and focus was noticeably absent. Hopefully, he thought, that that wouldn't cause a loss of her skills on the upcoming mission.
Anakin pulled back in the Force and dropped carefully from the wing of the Twilight to land beside Rex and Artoo and stood waiting for his Padawan.
***
Things weren't going quite as smoothly for Ahsoka as she'd first imagined they would. When the war first began with Geonosis, there was an initial amount of impending dread that Ahsoka felt. So many Jedi killed in one fell swoop. Jedi whom she had grown up to believe were nigh invincible. At that time Ahsoka's impending journey into adulthood and Padawanship just as war was beginning had scared her, and hearing of all the deaths of prominent Jedi made her really think for the first time of her own mortality. She began to wonder how she would fare in this war, who would train her on the battlefields across the galaxy and how ultimately, she would likely perish. Fear clouded her mind; she became restless for a short time, not knowing what to do, but a chance encounter with her old friend Plo Koon had done well to set her back on the right path.
Not long after Geonosis, Ahsoka had been meditating and contemplating her own mortality in the temple gardens. Master Koon had been nearby; sensing the plight of the then youngling through the force had sought her out and confronted her. Ahsoka's initial reluctance to speak about it was quickly overcome by the sage Master. Speaking as equal, mortal individuals they chatted for some time. Master Koon's insight changed Ahoska's outlook considerably. No longer did she fear death as she once did. The thought of her own mortality still didn't sit well with her, even to this day, but it now sprang from a love and enthusiasm of life, rather than a fear of death.
With renewed vigour and determination Ahsoka set about training. If she was going to survive this war and all the evils it would bring she needed to be sharp, skilled and confident. Day in, day out she trained, for several months, always either honing her prowess with a sabre or her knowledge of the force. Single-minded determination became the order of the day, and the temple's mechanics lamented at the constant stream of training bots that were in need of constant repair.
This determination and focus did not go unnoticed by the upper echelons of the Order. Since their talk Master Koon had been keeping an eye on the youngling, so when the council's debate turned to who would be a fitting Padawan for Anakin Skywalker, one of the most single minded and determined Jedi Knights in the order, his thoughts immediately turned to Ahsoka, one of the most determined and single-minded youngling.
Ahsoka had been summoned to the council chambers some days after this. Standing before the full Jedi Council, half in holograms or not, was slightly overwhelming. But she had known why they summoned her, and she was anxious to know who her fate in this war would be tied with.
Elation was one was one way to describe her reaction when Yoda had told her she would do her service alongside Anakin Skywalker. Barely a knight himself, but his status was undeniable. Trained by one of the most respected Masters on the council, Obi-Wan-Kenobi, in a line that began with the sage old Yoda himself, and well-respected Knight himself, Anakin had been the quiet talk of a lot of the younglings. They looked up to him, as something to set their goals for. Something Ahsoka had also done. Setting out the next day, Ahsoka began her journey as a Padawan and hopefully into adulthood.
Ahoska's time so far as a combatant in the Clone Wars thus far had been a tough but oddly rewarding one. Her determination and skill rose with every victory, and her confidence at succeeding to become a Jedi had been at an all-time high. She no longer doubted herself, and was even sure she would make out of the conflict in one piece, reckless Master or not.
The battle of Ryloth had changed things for her. Her own mortality was almost a non-issue for Ahsoka at that stage, but the death of her squad, due to her own actions during the blockade really hit her hard. She had caused the deaths of others, other living, breathing men. They weren't just faceless 'clones' as they were to the ordinary Republican citizen to her, they were who they were, individuals, some even friends. Now that they were gone she couldn't help but wonder if she was at all fit to lead men if she couldn't protect them. Her confidence and determination had taken a bit of a blow. So that's where Ahsoka found herself at that moment. Absent-mindedly wandering through the hangar of the deck she was so used to, seriously doubting that command of others was hers to hold. A knot formed in her stomach as she noticed the absence of a few otherwise familiar force signatures. Slightly more downcast again she glanced up, locked on her target, the Twilight, and set a slightly more direct course for it.
Standing underneath the main wing of the ship were two very familiar faces, Rex stood not quite to attention in his red GAR fatigues, but was certainly far more upright and presentable than her Master, enthralled in the datapad in his hand and stood leaning on a belligerently beeping Artoo. Smiling cheerfully to hide her doubt Ahsoka greeted them,
"Hello Master, Rex. Are ye ready to roll?"
Ahsoka hoped her falsely cheery disposition would at least fool Rex, she knew full well it was nigh impossible to fool a force user. Rex of course, being a clone captain, and used to having to read the tiniest of differences in facial expressions to tell his brothers apart would have been able to notice this falsehood even if he hadn't just had a conversation with Anakin about it, but he went along with it, trusting that Ahsoka's Master would handle the situation.
"No today for me Commander, I have troop training to conduct. Should be nice, all that time with you two troublemakers has kept me from devoting good time to my brothers. But don't worry, Artoo will keep ye out of trouble. Right Artoo?"
Artoo's response once again just sounded like a belligerent and annoyed message for Anakin to stop using him as a leaning post. Anakin didn't look up from the datapad that he was scanning through. Ahsoka rolled her eyes, crouched to Artoo's level and quietly spoke to the feisty astromech droid,
"If he were doing that to me Artoo, I'd move very suddenly."
With that Ahsoka stood up and took a step backwards. Whatever controlled Artoo's decisions made up its mind in record time as the droid immediately dropped his third leg and made a sudden lurch forward. Anakin, not expecting his leaning post to simply vanish from under him was feeling the full effects of suddenly finding yourself off balance. He stumbled a few steps to the side in a very ungraceful manner, shouting a huttese expletive, before he caught and righted himself,
"Cheeky Astromech droid! Go on inside before I use you as spare ship parts."
Anakin pointed at the open entrance to the ship and glared at Artoo until the little droid gave in and wheeled away, happily bleeping to himself. Anakin turned to Rex and Ahsoka who stood quietly suppressing grins.
"Not a word you two… Ahsoka, you'd better go in too, get this old pile of junk warmed up. I want to leave before we get caught to do something here. Rex, here, this looks good. Hopefully we can keep to these repair schedules."
With that he handed Rex the datapad he was holding and began moving around the ship, removing all fuel lines as his Padawan disappeared into the bowels of the Twilight.
Rex turned and marched off in typical soldier fashion while wondering how this mission was going to turn out.