Chapter 17

"'Fearless' is a name that the Emperor hates, one that the Alliance reveres and one that sentients throughout the known Galaxy know. All thanks to the actions a group of courageous servants of the Old Republic."

Senator Bail Organa, 19 AJE

In orbit over Coruscant little was noticeable about the battle raging in the Temple District. Most of the units that were involved had long since deployed groundside, and now the shields were mostly down to allow movement of troops and the many, many wounded that battle generated.

The Victory I-Class Star Destroyer Fearless did it's best not to be noticed by anyone. Not only because it was one of the few ships of her class and size manned exclusively by volunteers ant not a single clone, but also because her Captain and Command Crew had taken to do something that would brand them all as traitors.

Like every ship of her class, she was able to enter the upper atmosphere of any planet, and so Captain Kawgipi had placed her as low and close to the gap in the shields as he dared to without getting blown away by anyone. When queried on why he did so, he had, correctly, stated that her old position, directly above the temple would 'interfere with ongoing operations'.

Of course what she hadn't told them was that she had been in contact with Master Yoda, piggy-backing their signal on a Republican HoloNet stream.

As she and most of her crew were wearing the brown and blue uniform of the Republic Navy, Palpatine was technically their superior, and she knew that some of her crew and officers bought into the line that the Jedi had been trying to usurp the Repbublic, but she had been in contact with the Arcology before almost everything non-GAR had been jammed, and she knew that the Clones that had been brought in to, officially at least, co-ordinate with the Navy were probably there to keep the Navy under control, because even though officially they had been absorbed into the Grand Army of the Republic upon the start of the war, the Department still controlled them at least de jure.

The GAR's dismissive attitude towards them and especially their non-human members on the part of GAR officers like Tarkin were a part of why this organization that had a long history of cooperation with the Jedi was less loyal to whatever Palpatine was trying to pull than he would have liked.

"It's a coup, isn't it, Captain?"

Her Comms Officer, a human from an Outer Rim world currently under CIS occupation, was an old Judicial Forces hand and didn't like the course the Republic had taken under the Chancellor any more than she did.

"What makes you say that, Lieutenant?"

They were standing in a side-alcove of the bridge where they couldn't be overheard.

"Captain," he said, "the Jedi are the only organization that could conceivably be a threat to Palpatine. They've never been happy with the Emergency Powers that Palpatine has thanks to that stupid Gungan, and if anyone knows they are what they say they are, it's us."

Kawgipi said nothing, only tensed her head-tails, a sign that most non Twi'leks interpreted as tension.

"I wish you were wrong, Tan, I really do."

"So what do you want us to do? My people and I are behind you, you know that. We swore to serve the Republic over the Chancellor."

"Not all our people are pre-war entries, remember that."

She stared at the readouts of the nearby sensor station, the flood of vehicles around the Temple district obvious.

"On my word, block all out-ship communications except for TX-1138, and you go and personally tell Commander Mulheso to have the Hyperdrive ready to go at a moment's notice."

"Yes, Ma'am."

One of the consoles in the alcove was Auxiliary Navigation, and she had been a navigator herself before her last two promotions. She knew that her Nav was someone she could trust, but she wasn't so sure about the rest of his people, so she plotted a course herself, a course only she knew and that she would give to the helm only when they needed it. The smaller computer in this console would take forever to calculate it, but if Master Yoda had been correct, the timing would be just about right.

But alas, there was the Strikefast on a position that was too damn close for comfort, and to take the least-time escape vector out of the atmosphere, something would need to be done about her. Her Captain was... an odd person to say the least...

The fight in the Main Hall raged for a long time, but Ahsoka had been more or less drafted by Master Che to load the wounded who had long since been moved to the Food delivery and Civillian hangars, the two largest semi-protected landing areas in the temple. The massive bay doors were closed, and there had been no serious attempt to breach them, but she knew that it would not last. The Clones had managed to push the defence deeper into the hall, and she sensed that it was only a matter of maybe two hours or so before they had total control of the entire facility.

She was about to go back there, when she saw Master Ti, followed by the rest of the Jedi Temple Guard coming in the other direction.

"Master, where are you going? Master Yoda said that everyone was to withdraw to the Hangars."

Both Togrutans looked at each other, and Ahsoka sensed that wherever she was going, the Master had no intention of coming back.

"Young One, someone has to distract those Clones long enough for the rest of you to get where you are going, and who better than the one who oversaw their training, don't you think?"

Ahsoka had never been particularly close to the Master in spite of hailing from the same homeworld and being something of a kindred spirit in that they were both loners by the standards of their species, but now some sort of connection was established. Ahsoka remembered how eager to please she'd been when Yoda had assigned her to Master Skywalker, but that had gone away when she'd left the Order. Now that she was back.. for the first time since she'd set foot on Coruscant again she felt genuine compassion from a Jedi other than Anakin or Obi Wan. Compassion and genuine, heartfelt sympathy at what had happened to her along with some anger at how the Council had reacted.

"Master, I..."

"No, young one. Your old Master needs you, your friends need you and the Order needs you."

Ahsoka turned her head away. "I am not a member of the Order, not any more."

"But you are still one of the Force, a Jedi in the heart, if not by name. That is something that no one can ever take away from you, that inner connection that makes you a Force sensitive and that has made you into the Jedi that you would have been. If you were no Jedi, had you done what you did to make contact with your old Master, even though you know that that path might lead you back here? Or would you have so readily joined us in our hour of need."

Ti smiled. "I'm told you didn't even waver for an instant when you came here. You instantly sprang to aid those that needed it, you did what was right, you let yourself be flow with the Force. That is the true mark of a Jedi, not a Lightsabre or a set of robes. It is at the core of you, and will always be. In the Order or not. Skywalker values you and what you can do, as does, I believe, Master Kenobi. Skywalker in particular is thankful to you because you saved his family, and I don't believe he will let the others forget that. Not that there will be any need for the reminder. We must trust in the Force to help guide us, but there is nothing wrong with initiative."

"I want to help, Master." Ahsoka said with a sigh, and realized that she desperately wanted to please the other Togrutan. "But I-"

"Take this."

Ti reached into a pocket of her robes and handed Ahsoka an access chip.

"What's that, Master?"

"This is the access code to my Starfighter and R3 unit."

"Of the two of us, you are the better pilot, and the shuttles will need as strong an escort as is possible. At the moment this is the best thing you can do for us."

She gave a nod. "May the Force be with you, Ahsoka Tano."

Ti and the Guards disappeared down the corridor towards the sound of the fighting and Ahsoka remained behind, trying to understand what had just happened. This was the closest thing to an apology she'd gotten, and from one of the Order's best diplomats too.

And that was how she ended up in the upper tower hanger where most of the Council Starfighters were parked. Anakin was there, as was Obi Wan. The latter was wounded and wore a bacta patch on his right arm, though he insisted that he could fly and right now only there to keep Anakin from talking himself out of flying escort for the breakout. Ahsoka would always remember the conversation in which Yoda had detailed his desperate plan. Anakin had never been so worried. Oh, you needed to know him well, but the noise that had come from the shuttle where Padmé and the more lightly wounded waited for departure would unnerve anyone. Jedi tended to suffer minor wounds silently, but there lay the woman he loved more than life itself, screaming in pain from contractions that were now nearly continuous. She knew that he would have much preferred to be on the shuttle with her, but Obi Wan had pointed out that Anakin still was the best Starfighter pilot among the Jedi, and if anyone could keep the Republic interceptors busy long enough for the others to reach Fearless, it was him.

"Ahsoka, what are you doing here?" Anakin asked. "I thought you were supposed to be on the shuttle with the older younglings.

She held up the chip. "It seems I've been drafted for something else."

Anakin only stood there and watched as the dirty, tired and bleeding from a few minor cuts Ahsoka confidently walked around the ring of ETA-2s before stopping in front of one that seemed to be almost factory fresh. Every other had scrapes, dents and minor imperfections that came with use and that gave a ship character, but this one, painted in orange and white to match her skin and markings, with an equally under-used R3 unit in the same colours but modified with an R2-style dome.

She inserted the chip into the appropriate slot and the hatch opened. She got in and started the system startup sequence like she had done so many times before. She spent the next few minutes familiarizing her R3 with some of her preferences and habits while flying.

Intellectually, they'd known that Master Ti wouldn't need the fighter any more, but there was something between knowing it and seeing someone else take formal possession of it.

They all knew what was going on right now. The Clones had temporarily withdrawn to the entrance area itself. The Guard, with Ti at their head, would make a short, sharp counter-attack, allowing the remaining Jedi and the remnants of the Temple Security Force, now no longer needed for guard duty elsewhere, to withdraw, split up into pre-arranged groups and then head for the various hangars. When word was received that they were boarding their transports, shuttles, gunships, anything that could carry them, the fighters would launch, attempt to punch a hole into the fighter cover around the temple. Hopefully enough of them would make it to the ship, and the ship then out of the system so that they could do... what exactly?

Anakin knew that trying to think that far ahead wouldn't help him at the moment. Priority was to get at least the younglings and his wife off the planet. Beyond that...

Windu, Kolar and Tiin entered the hangar, and if any of them had something to say about Ahsoka joining them in this, they didn't, and instead boarded their own fighters.

Anakin, already seated and with his headset carefully positioned to avoid a few still touchy patches of skin on his head, switched to their old Squadron frequency out of habit.

"Everything all right, Snips?"

"Yes, Master. I only wish I didn't have to leave the Steamrunner behind."

"Don't worry, we'll find another T-51b for you. They aren't exactly rare."

"Not quite like that one, Master." came a slightly sad reply, and he realized that she had been hanging on that shuttle far more than he'd thought.

"Blue One to Squadron." came Windu's voice on another channel, "Say status."

"Blue Two, ready." That was Obi Wan.

"Blue Three, ready." Anakin said, reading off the day's Squadron designation as it was fed into the fighter's computer.

"Blue Four, ready to go." Ahsoka.

Blue Five and Blue Six, Masters Kolar and Tiin, checked in next, and without further ado, they launched.

Overall, what was left of the Jedi Order on that day, still managed to field twenty starfighters, even though it took almost all Jedi trained to fly a fighter that were still able to do so. Aside from the pilots all being Force-sensitives, the biggest advantage they had was surprise. Neither the interim Commander of the 501st nor Palpatine had expected that the Jedi would try something like this, and so the pilots that covered the area were woefully unprepared when the Jedi fighters came tearing out of the smoke-shrouded temple and tore into them.

The youngest pilots, now Master-less Padawans and a few of the eldest Younglings were tasked with providing close escort for the various transports as they launched and headed for the position in Orbit where they hoped Fearless would be.

Not that it all went their way. Three fighters and one of the Gunships were shot down almost immediately, and the confusion and surprise would not last forever. And there still was the issue of the Strikefast, the only ship that was within striking distance of the refuge the Jedi sought.

Anakin and Ahsoka flew wing to wing as if the past year had never happened. When they engaged a group of three V-Wings head on, they barrel-rolled around each other, firing as they went. The Clone pilots in the V-Wings could not hope to follow that move and were hit one after another. He fired another bolt, but the Clone dove away just in time, the bolt flying inches above his cockpit. Anakin swore, dipped the nose down and then exploded the V-Wing with a single shot into it's engines.

"Master, break left!"

Anakin did as directed and then saw an explosion behind him, swiftly followed by Ahsoka's orange and white fighter zooming through the sensor's field of vision.

"Thank you, Snips."

"Always a pleasure."

Both rose back to above the roof level and watched. There were only a few V-Wings left, and most of those seemed to be following the transports as they desperately clawed for altitude.

"Master, I have more fighters coming in from the Senate District!"

Anakin was about to send a warning, but he saw it always was too late. The V-Wings shot down one of the gunships and damaged another before Blue Five and Blue Six engaged them in blatant disregard for the odds. The furball that followed was soon joined by Obi Wan as well as Ahsoka, Anakin and some of the other remaining Jedi Fighters. Of the sixteen Jedi fighters that had attacked the group of V-Wings, twelve emerged intact. Blue Five was not among them, and Anakin's heart twisted in agony as he watched the ETA-2 spiral towards the building below, trailing a cloud of smoke and fire.

But at least what remained of the Jedi Order now was crossing the shield perimeter, heading towards the triangular ship painted in the same colours as their own Cruisers had been. A second one was moving in, and suddenly they were being fired on by capital-ship turbolasers.

Aboard Fearless Captain Kawgipi decided that there was only one thing left to do. She loathed doing it and risked having her orders ignored, or worse, be removed by a Palpatine loyalist, who still was the Chancellor, but if she didn't act fast, the Jedi would be dead. She nodded to Lieutenant Tan who blocked external communication as she had orderd.

"Tactical, aim every weapon that will bear on the bridge of Strikefast and open fire on my command."

The bridge crew hesitated for a moment.

"The Republic is dead. If we are ever to see it again, I need you to Open. Fire. NOW!"

With those words she committed herself, her crew and her ship to rebellion.

To their credit, even those who were not as convinced about events as Kawgipi did their jobs, and seconds later the first turbolaser bolts and concussion missiles lanced out towards the other ship. Not having expected anything like real resistance, her Captain had failed to put up all his deflector shields, even as he moved to get a better shot. Especially his bridge deflector shields. No one would ever know, but the last thing Captain Voss Parck would see in his life was a concussion missile flying directly at him.

His ship reacted poorly to the sudden loss of control from the bridge. Instead of stopping where it was supposed to, it continued on, past the fleeing Jedi through the gap in the shield and towards the planet below. At first those still on board tried to arrest the slow crash of their ship, but shock damage and the speed at which she was moving made their efforts pointless. Even if they had managed to gain full control of the manoeuvring surfaces Victory-Class ships had to fly in an atmosphere, the fact that the main sublight engines were down would have rendered the stricken ship unable achieve escape velocity. As it was all they could managed was to avoid the higher buildings until the ship crashed into the same abandoned industrial area where Ahsoka had first tried to meet Anakin.

Few on the surface died, but the incident would still be a centrepiece of Imperial Anti-Rebel propaganda for years to come.

But at that moment the actions of Fearless' crew had gained the Jedi the time they needed to achieve orbit. Kawgipi manoeuvred her ship so that her belly and the main hangar doors were easily accessible while she had switched three quarters of her shield power to the spinal generators, as now the other Republic ships began to move in on them.

The shuttles landed first, and their remaining eleven starfighters covering them against any eventualities. They only started landing by the time the nearest Venator opened fire with his forward-most turbolasers.

The hangar doors hadn't even fully closed when Fearless began to move up and away from the planet, firing her turbolasers at the nearest Republic ships.

But bolt upon bolt impacted on her shields, and they would not hold up forever. Additional ships moved in, fighters launched, and suddenly, as soon as she far enough away from the surface, Fearless disappeared into Hyperspace, leaving Coruscant, the dead Republic and the Clones behind.

tbc

I'm making a few assumptions here in regards to the Judicial Forces/Republic Navy, since Wookiepedia has almost nothing on what happened to them post-Geonosis.

Shaak Ti's ETA-2 Interceptor is another invention of mine. My google-fu did not allow me to find out anywhere if she ever flew one, all I could find were a few pictures of her in/near a Delta 7, one a Lego model on an obscure Chinese website and another of some mod or other. Point is, the opening scene of ROTS and the old Clone Wars Cartoon seem to indicate that near the end of the war the Council used ETA-2s more or less exclusively, so I'm giving her one of these. Besides, I wasn't able to find any sort of statement that said she didn't. As for why it is an R3, I mostly did that to be able to keep it and R2 apart.