Off Course
Chapter Four
"Yoda advocates patience, Mace Windu – moderation, I advocate shooting my way out of tense situations and Skywalker advocates aggressive negotiations. All told, I think So'ika did a good job of combining the four."
—Kal Skirata on Ahsoka Tano's escape from Facility QZXP-ZHH, interview circa 33 GrS
The situation had devolved from the ludicrously ridiculous to the morbidly fascinating, climbed to a new peak of absurdity and took a screaming nosedive for the utterly bizarre. Or, in fewer words, it all went to Korriban on a cluster missile – really fast.
Turning and tossing on her cot, Ahsoka tried, once again, to figure things out.
The funeral for the six Jedi and three clones who died during the bombing was held in the early Centaxday morning, the pyres burning out with the onset of daylight. The assembled began disperse; the Council to continue scheming, the politicians to continue doing nothing of importance in the grand scheme of things and Master Anakin – eye twitching – somewhere with Tarkin.
Ahsoka, now armed with facts from Temple Forensics, was about to drop by the local CSF precinct and report to Kellros that the explosion was indeed caused by shaped charges – BlasTech VapeTape, to be precise. She had just started her speeder when GAR Dispatch rang in. "8266 - Control, please respond."
"Control, 8266, send traffic." Despite the few hours of sleep she had gotten, Ahsoka's voice was clear and level, an old affectation from both the JOP and her time on the Leveller.
"8266, Control. 1010 requests your presence at QZXP-ZHH."
Tarkin's base? Ahsoka wondered. That was strange. "Control, 8266. Did 1010 give a reason?"
"8266, Control. He says 'the prisoner wishes to see Commander Tano. Tell JO-8266 it's moderately urgent.'"
With a sigh, Ahsoka nosed her speeder out of the exactly opposite portal she needed and called, "Control, 8266 acknowledges."
Yes. She thought. That was probably where the Sith began to hit the fan.
The interview with Letta Turmond had gone much as expected, with a lot of histrionics and attempted violence. Ahsoka had, rather patiently, weathered the storm before asking, "Why did you call me here?"
Letta jerked back, as if slapped. "W-what? They said you're the one who ordered this gig. They even had me moved from max-sec to here!"
That puzzled Ahsoka, for it was her understanding that 1010 – that was CC-1010, Commander Fox of the Coruscant Guard – had requested her presence on behalf of Turmond, who Ahsoka sensed, was telling the truth and genuinely confused.
Being a CSF investigator and an experienced combat commander, she grew quickly suspicious, and it was about then that Letta Turmond began to choke. A quick probe revealed that it was a Force-caused ailment, such as her master was prone to dishing out on occasion, but somehow her waving at the camera – the door was soundproofed – to get the attention of the guards was misconstrued as contributing to the choking, one thing led to another, and she found herself in max-sec.
Ahsoka had spent a noticeable chunk of the war in prison, either as unfortunate encounters with the separatists or as bait. In all circumstances, she had Master Anakin and a company of murderous clones on the way to bust her out, not glaring at her through the force field.
Even so, Coruscant's max-sec was pitiful by her standards, and she could have easily broken out at any time. She didn't though, preferring to bide her time and think on what precisely happened.
Taungsday came and went, and so did Zhellday. Tarkin had been by to gloat, as well as the food service droids, but she was yet to be officially charged with anything, which now made her detainment unlawful. Technically speaking, her original detainment was unlawful as per one of the newest Security Act amendments, giving Republic Military officials immunity, but she had gone along with it to pacify the situation and see what came about.
In the outside world, the sun was slowly sinking on a Benduday evening when a spike of danger through the Force sent Ahsoka jerking upwards. At a glance, nothing was amiss, save for a faint green mist oozing from the food tray. Moving to investigate, Ahsoka caught the sight of a midnight robe disappearing around the corner with her peripheral vision, she would have spared more thought and Force sense had her attention not been caught by a dioxis canister.
"Now this is getting interesting." she chortled, "Wild accusations, assassination attempts in prison, someone really doesn't like me."
The new order of the day in maximum security prisons the galaxy around were small chambers with ray-shielded doors and tiny portals for food trays, the reasoning being that a shield was harder to breach the conventional way, as opposed to say, a blast door that could be sliced with a saber or fusion cutter, blown open, or even jacked up.
Of course, one could cut power to the shield emitters by any number of ways. Or simply overload the generator, as Ahsoka did. Focusing on the Force, she traced the heavy leads running from her cell's emitters to the appropriate generator, furrowed her brow, and sent a surge through the system, blowing the whole thing out.
As she theatrically dusted herself off and exited her cell, she saw smoking debris and a generator-sized hole in the ceiling further down the corridor. "So Long!" Was her parting thought.
Something was again, not right.
Much like Master Obi-Wan's bad feelings, Ahsoka had lost count of how many times she had thought that in the past week. The answer was "disproportionally many".
Knowing that her escape was most likely noticed by now, she had taken to travelling inside the ventilation systems, her old pal when it came to moving covertly when enemies patrolled the corridors.
Apart from unobstructed travel, she was also given a first-row view of her pursuit, as well as several clone bodies, first knocked unconscious, others killed, and others dismembered by a lightsaber. That reminded her, she still needed to get her weapons and gear back. Changing course, she crawled to the security centre, and after setting off a few diversionary alarms, pulled off the grate and dropped down.
"Freeze, Jedi!" A voice barked. Though all the clones had near-identical voices, they nevertheless differed in inflection and mannerism. This particular buckethead was Commander Fox himself. Being born into the position of commander he fancied himself superior to almost the ARCs, despite having never set foot on a real battlefield and fired his blaster on only two occasions outside a parade or shooting range.
Needless to say, the Coruscant Guard was held in low esteem by the field-going members of the GAR. That low esteem showed in Ahsoka's voice as she tilted her head and asked, "Or what?"
"Or I shoot you for killing my men!" he growled, shouldering his carbine to illustrate his point.
Pretending to indulge him, but instead stretching out her awareness to locate her equipment and gage the situation, Ahsoka prodded, "And, Commander, what where your men killed with?"
"Lightsaber, of course, no get on the floor!"
"Oh?" Ahsoka did her best to look genuinely surprised, widening eyes and pitching tone, "Then how do you explain that my sabers are on YOUR SHELF?" To punctuate her words, she extended her hand. A locker burst open, and her weapons flew into her grasp.
Fox fired.
With a snap-hiss, two neon pink blades burst into life and intercepted the first volley, sending it ricocheting into the walls. The clone would have gone on doggedly firing but Ahsoka had places to be. Twitching a little finger she ripped the blaster from Fox's hands.
"Now, listen to me," she said in a deadly growl, looking directly into his helmet cam. "I got called to this facility supposedly upon request of the prisoner. Funny thing though, the prisoner made no such request. The prisoner was later choked by means of the Force, and the nincompoop at the monitoring station assumed I did it. Fine, I cooperated. You have the right to detain any Republic citizen for forty-eight hours without explanation. It's been nearly ninety-six and I still have not heard a charge, never mind that I am both a Jedi and a GAR Officer – double political immunity."
Her montrals twitched. Someone was coming; she'd have to keep this short. "I fully cooperated until someone tried to assassinate me. Trust me, Fox, if I wanted you – or any of your men – dead, we would not be talking."
The rifle flipped over in the air, travelled a distance to get some run-up distance, then suddenly charged and struck him in the helmet with the butt.
Fox's body crumpled against the wall, unconscious.
Relieving him of his comlink, thermal detonator and sidearm, Ahsoka triggered the lockdown and charged out into the night.
"This is Bravo, I need extraction." Her gambit had worked…partially. Engaging the lockdown had trapped her pursuers inside the prison bay corridors, leaving her to roam about the base grounds at will. Unfortunately, roam about the grounds was all she could do, as the lockdown had also secured the perimeter, and there were no ships on the airfield this late. No working ships. The two patrol LAAT/is that had tried to fire on her were a smoking wreck, pilots safely ejected and unconscious.
"Bravo, this is Omega. We're en route – ETA five minutes."
Ahsoka breathed a sigh of relief. Kal Skirata's Omega and Lambda squads were the current backup units for Project Esk; she was in business.
Naturally, it would be that exact time that the main gate into the facility blew open and a hoard of angry Coruscant Guards charged forth, blasters spewing fire. Ahsoka was up to par, rain falling about her, and the pink synthetic crystals crafted by her master thrumming savagely in her sabers, she stood on the highest landing pad, holding her foes at bay.
Thus it went, wave upon wave of troopers would attempt to rush Ahsoka's perch, foiled either by a gust of the Force, strategically applied clutter or the odd stun grenade 'mysteriously misfired'. Having held the line against battalions of battle droids using random firing algorithms, it was not much more than a leisurely exercise to deflect the laser storm hurting at her.
All leisure ended when reinforcements arrived, hauling rocket launchers. The platform hung over a pit into the underlevels of Coruscant, a jump even a Jedi would not take lightly, and the mass of troopers had pressed on to the foot of the ramp she had taken up, leaving her with no apparent opportunity to retreat. Sighing, she deactivated her shoto and began to wonder if she could spare the concentration to disarm the rocket troopers or to form a Force Shield of sufficient strength to hold the barrage. The Jedi were a decent margin more powerful than the general opinion held by the masses, and she was – though not on par with Master Anakin – still a powerful Jedi in her own right, but she was still a Padawan, and there were many things she did not know.
Then, as she prepared for her – probably last – stand, a floodlight swept over the scene. Coming from behind her, it did not affect her as much as it did the photosensitive visors of the clones. Tinted to near opacity, they did not see the modified ball turrets swing to strafe them with sonic crowd-control rounds.
An ascension cable was lowered from the troop bay, and over the whine of the engines a voice shouted, "So'ika, get on!"
The Coruscant skyline flashed by outside the troop compartment of the commandeered LAAT/p, whizzing by in a dizzying whirl of coloured lights and garish advertisements. Of the six occupants though, only Atin and Darman took the time to enjoy the view, having nothing else they could do from their ball turrets.
Niner was piloting, while Pronto – Lambda's sergeant – Kal Skirata and Ahsoka gathered around the furious holographic form of Anakin Skywalker.
"You were what?" he bellowed, outraged.
"Nearly assassinated at the prison!" Ahsoka shouted back over the wind.
"Right, remind me to kill whoever was responsible later." No-one doubted Anakin's threat. The last person to threaten senator Amidala was found perforated with laser fire, and the team sent after Ahsoka's most recent would-be assassin needed treatment for PTSD after the clean-up.
"For now, we have another problem." He had continued, "The Supreme Chancellor has put a bounty on your head worth ten million. I'll try to get him to lift it one way or the other but for now you're gonna have to lay low, at least until the council can dispatch a Shadow team to pick you up and bring you to the Temple safely."
"Understood," Ahsoka nodded, "I'll have Kal drop me off on Level 1331 and we'll see how it goes. Ahsoka out." She terminated the connection and was about to turn to Niner but Skirata was already nodding him on.
"Good luck, Kid!" He bade her.
Ahsoka smiled, looking outward. She would need it.
This was a very...strange chapter to write.
My first draft of it turned out at 5k words...my second draft would have been 6k, had I not stopped about half way. With a lot of creaking, I managed to get it down to ~2k. Even so, that's more than this story's average (currently 1,430.4 words/chapter).
I also, to some mild shame, discovered that I was referring to this chapter as "To catch a Jedi", while the actual name was "The Jedi who knew too much". I am sorry for any confusion this caused.
A heads up: last chapter's author's note was truncated because of FF.n's formatting and filtering idiosyncrasies, so all my notes were erased.
I did reconstruct the most important part, though!
Anyway, pertenant notes: In Mando'a (the language of the Mandalorians), the suffix -'ika is an effectionate diminutive used for names. (kind of like the Russian -chik). In this chapter, it is used for Ahsoka - So'ika. I dropped the "Ah" in "Ahsoka" for ease of pronounciation, as often happens. Often, male names are the least altered, while female ones require a bit more effort: An'ika - Anakin, Yod'ika - Yoda, At'ika - Atin.
Female names like Ahsoka, Padmé and so forth are harder to apply this principle to as Pad'ika/Padm'ika do not really fit. So for Padm130, it would be either P'ika or M'ika, Mirax (Terrik) - Mir'ika, and sooooooooo forth.
Calendars in Star Wars have beeen things of contention for a long time. The early EU used a 5-day, 7-week, 10-month calendar, (By early I mean Zahn and even Traviss), while lazy people such as Lucas used the Earth-like 12-month.
I personally hold to the good ol' Galactic Standard Calender (so 10 month years) because, lets face it, it's WAY better when each month has got the same ammount of days (35). Further, the 12-month calender has never been adapted to the 368-day Coruscanti year (a number which, erroniously, was confirmed by Lucas) while the 10-month has! (3 public holidays and 3 festeval weeks)
The days of the calender week are as follows: Primeday, Centexday, Taungsday, Zhellday, and Benduday. Of course, this is all "Legends", but unless Disney REALLY blows my mind with Ep7, I'll be sticking with Legends canon for a VERY long time to come. (Which is why I'll never get a job at LucasFilm, they say)
The callsign Ahsoka uses, 8266 or JO-8266 is a representation of "TANO" on a standard alphanumeric (so phone) keypad. JO, in this case, stands for Jedi Order, just as RC stands for Republic Commando, CC for Clone Commander, CT Clone Trooper and so on.
This simple naming system is not official, and was based off 645 (later 6425) - my callsign during a series of training exercises.
QZXP-ZHH is a rather simple frequency cypher that I highly encourage my younger readers not to investigate, as it portrays very bluntly what I think of Tarkin. ...Very bluntly :-)
The LAAT/p is an on-the-spot invention, a non-lethal weapons suite based on the normal LAAT (Low Altitude Assault Transport) platfrom used by police forces as a crowd control vehicle. Just think, you've got your ball turrets to spray non-lethal shots, it's big, it's scary, has capacity for missiles and megaphones, and a lot of cranky officers.
A breif note on Ahsoka's skills...It was my belief that the Jedi were...shall we say, underpowered in post 2006 EU (Except TFU, but that's a game, so what do you expect), so this story will see some "rebalancing" at it progresses, but more on that later.
For now, thanks for reading, and may the fiction be with you!
Clean word count: 2,181 | Published: 15/11/14, 0438 GMT