Chapter 17
Plo kicked the blaster out of Grievous's hand and parried his lightsaber attack, sending it twirling out of the cyborg's hand. Grievous snarled and continued the saber onslaught, "I will enjoy removing your mask, and watching you suffocate, Kel-Dor scum!" he shouted, grabbing one of his sabers from the ground in an attempt to surprise the Jedi.
But Plo swiftly jumped out of the way and came back down in a force blast, sending Grievous flying into a small, open cockpit speeder. Then his comlink rang, it was Wolffe. "General Plo!" he shouted from the other end. "We've defeated all the droids sir. We had a pretty good advantage in that valley. What are your orders?"
It's obvious isn't it? "Head back to my location. We're going to capture Grievous once and for all!" Plo responded, walking towards the dazed droid general.
"Yes sir!" the excited response said.
Grievous stood groggily from the ruined upholstery, "Don't bet on it Jedi!" he activated a control on his comlink and launched himself once more at the Jedi master.
Plo quickly deflected the attack, "It's over Grievous! Your droids are gone! Your base is destroyed! Your weapon, finished! It is pointless to continue to resist! Surrender!"
"Never!" the monster shouted. "Even if you do defeat me, you will never stop us from controlling the galaxy! Our armies are endless!"
"But your capture will change that! My troops and Skywalker are on their way, and you will have no choice but to surrender, or die!"
Grievous's gaze turned to the sky. "Like I said, Jedi," he said, grabbing the rest of his lightsabers and launching a wrist mounted tow cable somewhere. "Don't count on it!"
Plo looked to see the cable land on the back of the Sheathipede shuttle as it blaster off into the smog filled sky, taking Grievous with it. Plo jumped at him and tried to bring him back down, only to be punched off and fall back down. He landed gracefully on his feet, and watched helplessly as Grievous was lifted higher and higher, deflecting the blaster shots of Wolfpack's blaster as he rose. "Until next time Jedi!" he shouted.
Blast. So the war continues. Wolffe ran up to him in his custom maroon armor. "I...I'm sorry general, I failed you. He's gone," he apologized.
Plo sighed and placed his hand on his shoulder pad, "None of the blame is yours commander, I assure you," he said, looking to the base entrance to see Skywalker, Ahsoka, the child, a sigh of relieve followed, and the rest of Torrent company standing there, realizing what had just happened.
Anakin looked at Plo with disappointment. Plo nodded. Another day General.
The gunships finally arrived at the base, bringing the repulsar stretchers for the wounded. Admiral Yularen accompanied them. "What are the casualties?" he inquired, walking up to Anakin.
"About seven," Anakin answered, a sober expression on his face. "Three from Torrent, four from Wolfpack. And two too injured to stand. Out of the sixteen that came down here."
Yularen sighed, "I'm sorry I couldn't be of more help sir. I should have suspected something when we lost your signal. But I thought it was only because of the multiple communications down there."
"It wasn't your fault Admiral," Anakin assured. "At least you found us at all."
"And the child?" he continued.
"Fine. Gave us a little bit of a scare, but otherwise fine."
The admiral nodded as he walked back towards the direction he was called from. Where is she anyway? He thought as he looked around. She couldn't be far off. He walked past the few clones who were still standing. "Coric, have you seen Penny anywhere?" he asked.
"Yes sir, last I saw her, she was by the outer wall," the sergeant responded.
Anakin nodded and walked over to where he referred to. He saw Penny sitting in a small hole in the metal ground. Next to Bolt. He was about to speak, when he noticed she had thrown up. He sighed, knowing exactly why. "Penny," he said, walking down to her level. "You okay?"
She looked up at him, he could tell she had been crying. She nodded and slowly stood, walking over to him. "I'm fine," she replied weakly.
Anakin put his arm around her as she walked back to the gunships. "None of this was your fault Penny, okay?" he said, reassuringly. "You saved us on more than one occasion. We thank you for that. You've done the Republic a great service." She was still looking down the ground. He stopped and turned to face her. "I know it's hard kid. It's not easy seeing the reality of war. Though we suffer great losses, we fight knowing that we're coming closer to peace."
"I know," she responded, quietly. "When I'm fighting Calico and trying to save my father, I know it doesn't feel like I'm getting anywhere, but I know I'm protecting something worth fighting for."
"Peace?" She nodded. "You're brave kid, I'll give you that. You've got a lot of heart and spirit. You're even a good shooter." She smiled and patted Bolt on the head. "That's the kind stuff we need."
Penny looked back up at him curiously. "Are...are you saying, you want me to...?"
"Only if you're up for it."
She thought about it. She knew she had to help Mark. But she also knew the training could help herself. And Mark would be fine as long she was out of Calico's reach. "I guess it wouldn't hurt," she began cautiously.
"I don't want to force you into this, it's your choice," he reminded her, continuing towards the gunship. "We certainly could use your bravery. It's something we're a little short on in war."
"Alright," she said, smiling. "I do it."
Anakin returned a smile, "Good, let's get going. You've got a lot of training ahead of you." Penny sighed loud enough for him to hear. "...after some rest of course."
Artoo bumped her side. She looked down at the blue little astromech, and bent down beside him. "I don't think I can be as brave as you, little guy." The droid gave a curt reply, as if saying "You already are." and rolled away. She looked at Bolt, who gave her a disapproving stare. "It's okay boy," she said, turning to him. "You do your job, I'll do mine."
She gave him another kiss on the head. He wagged his tail in response. She stood and returned to the gunship and looked up at the cruisers overhead. I'll do it. For Bolt. For them. For this...whole galaxy. And for you, dad.