The Final Battle: Part 11
Ahsoka, Barriss, Tanya, and Master Li flew to rejoin the clones.
"All units fallback," Master Li ordered. "The padawans and I will cover your retreat."
The clones immediately began to fly back toward the Liberty, leaving the Jedi to deal with the Vulture droids alone.
The Vulture droids, realizing the clones' retreat, started to swarm, firing and flying at the Jedi, attempting to blast them to bits.
"Gee, and I thought this was difficult before but this is insane!" Tanya exclaimed, shooting down two Vulture droids and almost getting hit by three others.
"You're one to talk. Didn't you say that you were a little bit insane during our last mission together?" Barriss asked.
"Hey, if you were Master Yoda's padawan, you'd probably be a little nuts too."
Ahsoka and Barriss laughed, losing their focus and almost getting torn apart by an explosion, coming from the station.
"I guess that'd be the bombs that were rigged to the shield generators," Barriss assumed.
"And not a moment to soon," Master Li observed. "We should head back now. We can finish the station off with the Liberty."
"Yes, Master," Tanya acknowledged, turning her ship around. Ahsoka and Barriss followed her, speeding through the station's explosions. Unfortunately, the explosions were gaining on them, threatening to tear their ships apart.
"We're cutting it awfully close," Tanya observed.
"Hang in there," Ahsoka advised. But the explosions continued to gain on them, fiery inferno's chasing them like mad, hungry wolves. Eventually, one caught up to Tanya and the flames engulfed her starfighter.
"Tanya!" Ahsoka shouted over the comlink. She looked back into the flames, hoping to see Tanya's ship emerge from them. "Tanya, are you there?"
At the last moment, Tanya's ship soared out of the fireball and joined the three other Jedi starfighters.
"Yeah," she replied, sounding relieved. "I got a little cooked but I'm alright. Wow, it was hot in there."
Ahsoka and Barriss laughed, as Master Li breathed a sigh of relief.
"I'm glad you're alright, Tanya. I'd hate to think how hard Master Yoda would whack my shins with his cane if I told him his padawan got fried in the middle of a mission I was supervising."
"Master Yoda hits your shins?"
"Well, it is the only part of me he can reach. Though he definitely left a mark while... convincing me to watch over you three."
Tanya seemed to be trying hard to suppress her laughter. "What's so funny Tanya?" Barriss questioned.
"It's just a nice to hear that someone else gets whacked with that infernal old cane of Master Yoda's."
"He hits your shins?"
"Are you kidding me? I have callouses from getting hit with that old stick so much."
"Indeed. You know Master Yoda's not in the mood for arguments when he starts hitting you with his cane. I learned that quickly enough after he made me promise to keep you three safe," Master Li commented.
"Wait, why would he need you to watch over us?" Ahsoka asked.
"Indeed. I'm almost a full Jedi knight and I do plenty of missions on my own," Barriss stated.
"Young ones, considering the fact that out of your two missions together, at least one of you ended it in the medical bay and both times it was always Tanya who was one of the ones who ended up in the medical bay, I think you can understand why Master Yoda thinks you need supervision."
"Point taken, Master Li. I guess we should break that streak then by getting to the Liberty before any of us get shot down," Ahsoka suggested.
"Easier said than done, Ahsoka. My stabilizer's broken lose from the explosion. R5 see what you can do to fix it."
R5 beeped in acknowledgement and starting making repairs.
"We should still get to the Liberty as soon as possible to keep them from doing any more damage," Ahsoka noted, pointing to the approaching Vulture droids. The Vulture droids, who had previously scattered with the explosion of the station's shield generator, were regrouping and swarming toward the Jedi like before.
"Done with the repairs and - Whoa!" Tanya exclaimed, almost getting hit by several Vulture droids from the swarm.
"There's too many of them," Barriss shouted over the comlink. Even Ahsoka was having trouble avoiding collisions with the Vulture droids' swarm.
"Focus on flying through the swarm, padawans," Master Li instructed. "If you put to much focus into shooting the droids down then you're more likely to get hit by them. Only shoot down the Vulture droids that you can't fly around."
Ahsoka, Barriss, and Tanya did as Master Li said and focused on dodging the droids instead of shooting them down. It worked fairly well for the padawans. That is, until Tanya's stabilizer broke lose again, causing her to veer into a Vulture droid.
"Blast!" Tanya shouted, as red lights flashed and alarms blared.
"Tanya, are you alright?" Ahsoka inquired.
"No. My fighter is seriously damaged. I don't know how much longer I can keep this up."
"Hang in there, Tanya. We're almost to the Liberty."
Ahsoka, Barriss, Tanya, and Master Li darted through the Vulture droids, Tanya practically fighting against her starfighter, trying to maintain her control over it. To give her support, Ahsoka, Barriss, and Master Li flew in a triangle formation around her ship and shot the droids, protecting Tanya from the droids' attacks. . After shooting down the final droids in their path, Ahsoka, Barriss, Tanya, and Master Li flew into open space, headed for the Liberty.
"We made it," Barriss sighed in relief.
"Not quite, Barriss. There's still the matter of me landing a ship I can barely control," Tanya pointed out.
"Right."
As the four starfighters neared the Liberty, Master Li contacted the ship. "Captain Mec, please open the door to hangar bay three."
"Right away, general," was the reply. The hangar door opened instantly and Ahsoka, Barriss, and Master Li's starfighters glided into the hangar, landing gently on the ground, before jumping out of their ships.
"Where's Tanya?" Ahsoka questioned.
"INCOMING!" Tanya screamed, as her fighter sped past the group and into the hanger. Tanya was desperately attempting to slow her ship down, though she was having little success. She was able to slow the ship down slightly and regain some control, lowering her ship and making a colossal scrape in the floor. Tanya tried once more to slow the fighter down and was able to turn the ship on its side, before finally stopping it. Ahsoka, Barriss, and Master Li raced over to help Tanya.
"Tanya, are you alright?" Ahsoka asked, when Tanya emerged from her, now unrecognizable, starfighter. Tanya stumbled a bit as she stepped out of her fighter and was helped up by Barriss and Master Li.
"Depends on your definition of 'alright', Ahsoka," Tanya pointed out. She looked back at her ship before adding, "I take back what I said earlier; I hate flying!"