Chapter 11

Everything was dark. Penny opened her eyes. Not too much of a change. She allowed her eyes to adjust to the light, or what little amount was leaking in. Her head was throbbing more than ever, but she could make out the ruins of the bridge, the front pilots seats were pushed in by the heap of metal. Other areas of the ceiling and walls had been dented inward also, exposing much of the electrical wiring. While other pieces of metal, too damaged to make out what they were anymore, were scattered across what was left of the floor. Penny herself was against a small hunk of metal to her left with her back to the wall. Then she weakly peered over to her right, her right arm was pinned to the wall by the chair she was originally sitting in. She took a better look and realized the ship was partially on its side, and she was pinned to the wall. She tried to lift the chair from her arm, only to find extreme pain shoot through it in an instant. She faintly cried out from the sudden, but extreme pain. She turned her gaze back to the ruin of the cockpit, to see a helmet with dual Jaig eyes on top pop up from behind one of the chunks. "Kid!" he said as he dropping whatever he was doing, and rushed over to her.

He removed his helmet to reveal a worried face as knelt down beside her, scanning her over her for and wounds. Stang. He encountered his one of his worst fears for the mission. The kid was hurt. He saw the chair she had been sitting in pinning half of her arm against the wall, blood trickling down the sleeve and onto the floor. "Kid," he asked, doing his best not to sound as worried as he was. "Are you alright?" Stupid question, Rex. But he had to know. "Where does it hurt?"

Penny weakly gestured to her injured arm, "About up to here, really bad," she responded, pointing to the free half up to where the chair lay. "I can't feel the rest. Except for my head."

Rex noted the area of her fire-red hair that was blood red instead. "Okay, just hang on," he said, slowly lifting the seat of her, and trying to get her on her feet. "Can you stand? We had better get that arm looked at."

She slowly stood from her place and staggered into Rex, who was supporting her. She continued to whimper from her wound, "Don't touch it," she warned.

"It's okay, I won't. I just want to see it," Rex said getting a better glance at the damaged limb. "Kix! Get back here!"

Penny's head throbbed from the noise as Rex guided her out of the room into the almost equally damaged passenger hold, where he placed her on the original seat was sitting in. That's when she remembered Bolt. "Wait," she said, suddenly frantic. "Where's Bolt? My dog, where is he?"

"Take it easy kid," Rex said as Kix entered the barely lit hold. "When...we crashed, your dog...um, he rolled to the back. And..." Stang! Why do I have to be the one to tell her? "He went back to the cargo hold and...when we checked it was totaled, so...I'm sorry, I don't think he made it."

Penny froze up, completely ignoring the sharp pain that came from her arm as Kix, the new team medic was patching it up. There was a greater pain. Tears began to form in her eyes, "No..." she whispered. "He can't..."

The two clones sighed, "I'm sorry kid," Rex said. "I really am."

Kix had finished her arm, injected a small amount of pain reliever in her neck and was dabbing her blood stained hair with small sponge. Then he placed his hand on her shoulder and said, "Here, I'm almost done, we can go check again."

Penny slowly stood and followed him to the back of the ship, she looked over the ruined cargo bay. Hopes of seeing her best friend again fading with every second, "Bolt?" she whispered.

Suddenly, a large chunk of metal shifted, a small glimmer of hope entered Penny's heart. The piece jumped up, then again higher. Kix hastily ran towards it and began moving other pieces out of the way, until he reached the jumping metal. He shifted one single chunk, and Bolt came tumbling out onto the floor. Penny cried out in pure joy as she ran towards her companion, who was dazed, but unscathed. She carefully wrapped her good arm around him, now crying tears of joy, "I thought I lost you, boy," she whispered, clinging him in her arm.

Kix grinned, "Glad to see he's okay," he said. "But, how did he survive? He was nearly crushed and more importantly he does even have a scratch? It's not that I'm not grateful but...how, exactly?"

Penny looked up at him and tried to think of anything as a cover up, when she heard Skywalker's voice from outside, calling for Rex. Penny stood up and went back to the door, "It's complicated," she told him, as she exited the cargo bay.

Bolt closely followed as usual, glaring at Rex as they proceeded out. Penny was hurt, and it was their fault. Rex nudged Penny at this, she looked back at him, "Oh, it's okay," she said as she continued towards the exit. Then she knelt down beside him and said, "Bolt, it's okay. This crash wasn't their fault, and..." She softly stroked his head. "I'm fine. Just...relax."

Relax? Relax she said. How could he relax if she's getting hurt? Bolt tried to set the thoughts aside as Penny found a crack in the hull that lead outside. She carefully slipped through and surveyed the bleak landscape, nothing but piles of steel and ruined ships. Great. A landfill. This should be fun. Then she spotted rest of the clones with Anakin, who were also looking over the barren wasteland. She carefully made her way over to their position. "Hey...um," she called, trying to recall his name. It was Sky...Sky something, Sky-killer? No. Walker... "Hey, uh general...Skywalker!"

Anakin turned to the sound of her voice and quickly ran over to her, "Hey, kid," he said in relieve. "Glad to see you're okay, or in one piece, anyway."

He noted her blood stained bandage and sleeve, "So am I," she responded, realizing she was hobbling slightly. "I think I'm just a little shaken up. I just have a headache, and I can't feel my right hand."

She held up her slightly pale hand, which instantly sent another sharp pain through her arm. She pulled it back, making sure she didn't look like she was in too much pain. Anakin winced and sighed, "I'm really sorry about this. Don't worry, we'll get you home," he said apologetically, then he turned back to the clones. "Sergeant Coric, any luck repairing the transmitter?"

The clone shook his head, "Negative, sir."

He sighed, Great. Ten whole standard hours before Yularen begins to suspect something happened. It didn't need to get any more difficult. "Well," Anakin started. "I guess our best chance is to head for one of those mines. Maybe the locals have some sort of transmitter we can use."

"There are locals on this trash heap?" Ahsoka asked surprisingly.

"Mainly just Jawa and Rodian scavengers, trying to make a few quick credits of what can be salvaged."

"Think they'll let us use anything?"

"Maybe if we ask nicely, sir," Rex noted.

Anakin smiled, "Got everything we can use from the ship Rex?"

"Yes sir," he responded, holding up a loaded backpack. "Rations, weapons, and anything else that could help us off this Godforsaken rock."

"Alright, let's get moving. And hope the Separatists don't search for survivors. Artoo, search for any life forms...or droids."

The astromech beeped twice and he began walking across the desolate landscape, the clones and Penny following behind. Plo saw Penny's condition and approached her. I'm fine. Trust me, I've been through worse, I'm fine! She hoped they wouldn't be too concerned about her. Bolt was already concerned enough, "It's okay, I'm fine," she assured as Plo came up to her.

"It's not that," he said, as he quickly held out his arm to stop her from falling into a small ditch. "It's that."

He redirected her onto a stable pathway. She simply thanked him, kept walking and noted Rex's backpack. She then remembered her own backpack and how she left it back at the hospital. Great. Now all she had was her phone, and she doubted she could use it to contact the cruiser, Bolt, the large amount of cash her father had left her (once again, wouldn't come in handy), a miniature tracking device and her monocle. Oh, that's right. The voice-activated scanning monocle that was originally built into her scooter helmet. Though she removed knowing it could help elsewhere. She smiled at the memory when she presented the design to Mark when he was working at home, and how excited she was when he told her he could actually make it a reality. A small tear entered her eye at the memory of her father. Then she looked down at Bolt who had noticed, she smiled and patted his head. She had to focus on getting back to Earth, more specifically to her father. She looked back up into the smoggy atmosphere and saw the clone she had sat next to in the mess hall, Jek. He was looking through a pair electrobinoculars, then he turned back to Anakin and shouted, "General! There's something you should see!" his voice sounding urgent.