YAY! New Part! Ok, so I have been getting questions about this being an Anakin/Ahsoka Pairing. It is not. I just don't do master/student stuff. I mean, seriously, Komari Vosa loved her master, and look what happened to her! So, no this is not an Anakin/Ahsoka pairing. I think that you guys will like this chapter. The past few chapters have been nothing but talk, talk, talk. We're going to get back into the action here! With the advent of the continuation of The Clone Wars, I think a word on chronology is in order. This story takes place directly after the episode "Heroes on Both Sides." It takes place before The Night Sisters trilogy. Once again, I cannot express my excitement. Enjoy!
Battle droid OM-447 patrolled the rampart of Outpost 258. The outpost's placement on the edge of the rift valley gave a fantastic view of the scenic hills and valleys of Koru Neimoidia. OM-447 was not there for the sights though. He was assigned to protect the assets of the Trade Federation, manifested in Naantray and Ruune Haako. Far above, Sora Bulq had been personally assigned by Count Dooku to protect the Seperatist leader. Of course, while battle droids were unquestioningly devoted to the Trade Federation, they still considered that a change in career might be good for them, what with Jedi slicing them in half at an almost regular basis.
To OM-447, the whole business of Koru Neimoidia's wealth being shipped off world was counterproductive. He remembered very well the smug look on San Hill's face as he proudly declared the new interest rates that would be applied to the Seperatist's spending. Poggle the lesser had passed out, but when he came to, he said so many Geonosian swears directed at the gaunt Muun that the protocol droid TC-16 couldn't keep up with it, and had abbreviated it to "The Great Poggle hates your guts with the burning passion of a thousand stars," as the Geonosian continued with his profane tirade. When Wat Tambor demanded to know why the interests were so high, Hill had responded that the rates had also been raised on the Republic side, and that all rates must be the same. Dooku pointed out that, though honorable, the interest rates were detrimental to the Seperatist agenda. Nute Gunray concurred, and ordered Hill to lower the rates from an exorbitant 25%. Hill conceded and sent his "top financial minds" to find the lowest rate possible, and the meeting was adjourned.
A week later, AM-551 arrived with the new rates.
24%.
Nute had almost popped a vessel. What happened next was quite grisly. Suffice to say, AM-551 was no longer with them.
So, to finance the war, the Trade Federation had to pull extra funds from their purse worlds. Neimoidia itself had been captured, and unless the Republic was beaten back here, Cato Neimoidia would be the last purse world.
A small noise picked up by OM-447's audio-sensors brought him from his musings.
It sounded like it was coming from beneath the cliff face.
With a confused state of mind, he looked over the edge and scanned for anything abnormal.
Nothing was amiss. A large, white pylat bird squawked at him from a branch jutting out of the cliff-face.
So the droid continued on his way.
Beneath the cliff face, Codi Ty, Ahsoka Tano, and twenty troopers exhaled a sigh of relief. They had been climbing up the face of the cliff for the past forty-five minutes, and had gone without detection, that was until Ryk had grabbed a fistful of rotten rock. It had crumbled, and the rocks had gone tumbling down the cliff. Ryk began what looked like a final descent, when Codi released the cliff, fell straight down, snagged the clone's arm, and dug his fingers into the cliff before the droid had looked over the rampart.
The pylat bird on the branch regarded them with what looked like bemused intrigue. It cocked its head and looked at Ahsoka with one eye, hooting softly. "Gosh, you guys are ugly, clumsy, and clueless," it seemed to say.
While the Togruta on the cliff did not grace it with a response, she did stick her tongue out at it.
The bird ruffled its feathers and squawked at her. Sticking its beak into the air, the pylat bird straightened his feathers and took flight.
"Having close encounters of the avian kind commander?" The clone lieutenant smirked up at her.
"Careful there, Slice," said another. "I hear she bites."
Several clones chuckled.
Codi placed a finger on his lips to silence the troopers. He had already clambered back up to his previous position on the cliff.
Using the Force, he drew his lightsaber from his belt and whispered to the men, "Well, we'll soon see how hard she bites."
Ahsoka had to admit, once Codi was out in the field, his jerk-level went down a notch.
With a soft grunt, Codi pulled himself up over the edge of the cliff. His head snapped left, then right, scanning for sentries.
He gestured with his hand that the coast was clear. Ahsoka hauled herself up over the edge, grateful that her feet were back on solid ground. The troopers followed, silent as a burial field. There were no droid sentries in view.
"Alright boys," Codi hissed. "We need to take out the communications tower first. After that, we just kill all the droids before they can leave. Got it?"
There was a unanimous consent of nodding. The clones began to move off. Codi began to follow, but Ahsoka seized his arm. "I didn't hear any female references in that sentence."
"Oh, silly me," he said. "Forgive me, but it is so easy to forget you."
"Don't think that you can just ignore me Ty. "
He didn't answer her, but the Force told her enough about his emotions. Just watch me.
That clinched it. She was going to prove him wrong, she was going to show him first hand that the he would remember the name Ahsoka Tano. That the whole galaxy would know that name.
She elbowed past him as she caught up to the troops. Did her eyes deceive her, or did she see an appreciative smile spread across his sunset features? It was beautiful, whatever it was. It made her stagger just to look at it. The storms in his blue eyes appeared to have receded to a small cloudburst. But he seemed to notice that she was looking, even if it was out of the corner of her eye. The storms returned to his eyes with new vigor, and he looked away.
So be it.
The procession of troops and Jedi continued on with dead silence. Any noise could give away their position.
A fork in the road appeared. On hall went straight, the other went left.
Codi motioned for his troops to follow, and began down the left hallway.
With a quiet "ahem," Ahsoka gained his attention. She pointed down the straight path.
Codi's brow furrowed and his eyes became stormier. He insisted that they go left. Well, when the word "insisted" is used, he gesticulated fiercely in that direction.
Ahsoka put her hands on her hips and stared at him so hard, it was a miracle that he did not catch on fire.
To see two people argue non-verbally is something to behold, as the clones found out that day.
Codi crossed his arms over his chest curled his lip in an almost feral snarl, and the sharp incisors that Togruta posses added to the effect.
Ahsoka was unmoved, and merely intensified her stare.
The two stared daggers at each other for what seemed like ten minutes.
With an exasperated sigh, Codi let his arms flops to his side and gestured for Ahsoka to lead the way, and she did.
But not before shooting a very annoying smile at Codi.
He seethed silently and followed.
At the end of another corridor, around a corner, a single droid sentry walked the rampart. The clones crouched and shouldered their weapons. Codi brought his lightsaber hilt into position, thumb on the activation stud, but Ahsoka motioned for them to stop.
A several months prior, she, her master, Obi-Wan, and Rex were working with Shaak Ti in a covert mission on one of the moons of Ando. A single battledroid had revealed itself, but did not see the foursome. While Rex had nearly jumped over the rocks that they were hiding behind, Shaak Ti had stopped him and told him "There are alternatives to fighting." She had lifted a rock from the ground, tossed it in the air to test its weight, and then lobbed it with such force that the battle droid was relieved of his head.
Ahsoka found a loose stone of appropriate size and lobbed it at the droid.
With a CLANG, the droid hit the ground like a ton of bricks.
She looked at Codi smugly. He was smoldering in place, his arms crossed over his chest.
"Hey, what happened to ER-322?"
The distinct voice of B-1 battle droid made the entire group freeze. Almost afraid of what she might see, Ahsoka turned her head to look.
A single battle droid was nudging the remains of his fallen comrade with a foot. Behind it were three more droids: a droideka, and two commando droids.
Not good.
Codi began to whisper orders to his men, when his words were drowned out with a cry of "THERE THEY ARE!" followed by the phrase "GET 'EM!"
The blaster bolts began to fly like raindrops on Kamino.
"Wonderful job, Tano," Codi snarled as he ignited his lightsaber. "You have just single-handedly blown our cover! Congratulations!"
He flipped over the crates that they were behind and began deflecting blaster bolts, making a slow advance towards the droids.
Ahsoka was seconds behind, shoto and saber bared. "Well you know what? Next time, you can kill your own battle droids. I won't help you at all!"
"Then you'll be helping the mission won't you?"
"Well, if it wasn't for me, we would have taken a wrong turn." Ahsoka sliced off a battle droid's head, scissors-style. "Remember when you said that we should turn left, and I said straight? Well, we went straight, and look!" She jabbed her lightsaber forward through a droid and in the direction she was looking. "There's the tower!"
True, the structure stood not twenty meters away.
"So you lead us to the tower to blow our cover just before we get there? Brilliant!" Codi punctuated the sentence by redirecting a wrist-rocked back to its owner.
Ahsoka opened her mouth to say something, but she didn't get the chance because a loud voice began to exclaim "INTRUDER ALERT! INTUDER ALERT!" and innumerable battle droids began to converge on their position.
A clone captain came to Ahsoka's side. "Any bright ideas, Commander?"
Nothing came to mind. A straight charge through the wall of battle droids seemed to be the only option.
Insert row of bullets here to indicate change of vantage point. X-P
A soft boom reached the ears of Anakin Skywalker as he and B'dard Tone walked through the camp.
The Coway looked at him. "Did you hear that, Skywalker?"
"Yep," he responded, pinching the bridge of his nose. "It sounds like my Padawan."
Snatching a pair of binoculars from his belt, Master Tone pointed them in the direction of the outpost. The longer he looked, the lower the corners of his mouth became. "Well, I guess subtlety is out of the question."
Anakin placed his own pair of binoculars to his eyes. "It never was her specialty."
From what Anakin could tell, the two Padawans were causing absolute chaos. He could see Ahsoka working her way across the bridge, her green blades flowing in harmony with each other. Close behind her, was Codi, but the way he moved troubled Anakin. He could identify lightsaber styles usually, although he had difficulty differentiating Shii Cho from Vaapad, but he could not identify the male Togruta's movements. It was taking care of business certainly, but his curiosity was piqued. Putting the thought out of his mind, Anakin shifted his gaze to the troopers. He saw two drop like flies at that moment, but the droids were dropping even faster at the blaster-bolts of the clones. It was truly a sight to behold.
"It looks like they're doing a good job Master."
"Perhaps, but they must take out the droid's communication before the clankers call for reinforcements, or all will be lost."
"How so?"
"Our position will be revealed, and an airstrike will serve to bump us off in one fell swoop."
A sobering viewpoint. But there was nothing to be done.
Come on Ahsoka. Don't let me down.
Re-insert a line of bullets to indicate a change of vantage point.
All things considered, things were going better than she expected.
The droids were easy to neutralize, they must have been taken completely by surprise.
That was odd. A position like this should be more heavily fortified.
Ah, well.
"Troops, follow me, the command center is this way," Codi roared as he kicked a droid to the floor and stabbed it.
"No," Ahsoka retorted. "It's this way."
"I'm pretty sure it's this way Tano," Codi growled.
"No, it's this way!"
"It is most definitely this way!"
"When will you realize that I am always correct about directions?"
"When you are correct about directions."
"Well, I'm going this way. Any of you troopers coming with me?"
The clones looked at each other. A loyalty decision, but then, it wasn't much of a decision.
"We are obliged to follow our commander," one said.
Ahsoka's face soured as Codi's countenance became smug.
"FINE! I'll go alone!"
Codi paled. Even if he hated the universe and all beings in it, he couldn't let a comrade go into enemy territory alone.
But then, if he conceded, he would look weak in front of his men.
Juxtaposed, he said nothing as Ahsoka strode away; he just gaped until she turned a corner.
Ahsoka treaded through the corridors as softly as a nexu. Even if subtlety was not her favorite plan, it worked.
Unfortunately, she wasn't very good at it, as was proven when she literally ran into a pair of super battle-droids.
The two droids regarded the frozen Padawan silently for a few seconds.
Then they pointed their cannons and began to fire.
Deflecting a shot away from her body and dodging a second, Ahsoka sliced though both simultaneously and advanced into what must have been the control room.
HA! She had been right!
Again…
The screens glowed green with technical readouts. A group of about ten battle droids were inside the room.
"Distract her, I'll send the distress signal," one with yellow markings said.
The droids trained their sights on Ahsoka as the yellow-one charged for a panel.
Too easy.
Ahsoka threw her saber and charged forward with her shoto. The initial throw took out at least four, and two had been slain by her hand already. With a hum, the saber returned and hewed another battle droid.
That left three.
With the simplest form she knew, Ahsoka dispatched the last of the droids without breaking a sweat. The yellow one was not half-way to the console. Ahsoka extended a hand and summoned the droid with the Force. The droid tried to run, but his metal heels screeched across the floor in vain. He got closer. Ahsoka raised her blade to slice him in half-
A slight tremor in the Force alerted her, and Ahsoka bent over backwards to avoid the blade of a Commando droid.
The yellow droid was released, and began to scramble for the console.
While the Commando droid's strike had distracted her, it had left its arm exposed, and Ahsoka wasted no time in relieving the droid of it.
It barely reacted as the plasma swept through the circuitry, and the appendage dropped.
Instead, with murderous vengeance in its visual-receptors, its other hand lashed out and grabbed her throat with such force, that she dropped both her lightsabers.
Holding her with one hand, the droid lifted her off the ground as it squeezed the life out of her. Lights popped in front of the Togruta's eyes as the blackness encroached on her field of vision.
Then, like an angel from the heavens, a figure charged in and cleaved the droid clean down the middle with a blade of blue plasma.
Everything was in gray-scale as Ahsoka slumped to the floor.
A feeling of warmth on her back.
A hand in hers.
A voice: "Tano! Tano stay with me, AHSOKA!"
Color reentered her vision, and Ahsoka raised her head to see something that completely blew her mind.
Codi Ty was kneeling on the ground. He was holding her, his face inches from hers, wrought with concern. No, it was beyond concern. It almost looked like he was in pain.
He was holding her hand.
He was holding her.
Suddenly, the blood rushed back into her system as her heart-rate went through the roof, and a magnificent blush illuminated her face.
He noticed. His face split into what must have been the most radiant smile ever seen in the galaxy, and his eyes were no longer stormy. They were a beautiful, clear deep blue, like the oceans on Mon Calamari, only with that tinge for amethyst that only Togruta have.
But a horrible thought entered her mind. She wanted to scream and jump to her feet, but she could not. All that came out was a strangled: "The battle droid!"
Codi's smile disappeared, and his head snapped to the side.
Ahsoka's lolled in tandem.
The droid had his fingers on the button. He was reaching out to press it, centimeters away.
It was all over time moved in slow motion as the digits extended to seal their fate.
BLAM!
And the battle droid dropped to the floor, a fresh blaster-hole through the head.
Ahsoka blinked in surprise. She looked up and saw a clone in the doorway, the barrel of his DC-15 smoking.
He turned to look at them. "Commanders, are you alright?"
"We're fine, Bastion. Good shot," Codi said with an appreciative smile. Oh, gods it was a beautiful smile. It probably outshone the super-nova she and Master Kcaj had escaped back in Atlus-Prime.
Then, Ahsoka realized with a blush that she was still cradled in Codi's arms.
He realized it at the same time.
She jumped to her feet, ignoring the wave of dizziness as she stood.
She swayed a bit, and Codi moved to catch her, but she caught herself.
Then she fixed him with a get-your-hands-off-me stare.
His hands were immediately pinned to his side. He cleared his throat, and rubbed one of his arms with his hand.
Both desperately tried to abstain from eye-contact.
An awkward silence was in the making, but fortunately for them both, clones never allow awkward silence.
"Sir, we are planting charges. Would you like to oversee?"
Music to Codi's ears. "YES!...Ah, I mean, certainly, Trooper, lead the way."
He followed the trooper out, leaving Ahsoka in the room, alone, and with a mess of emotions in her mind that did not make sense.
I promise, this is the last time that I will tell you to insert a line of bullets to indicate a change of vantage point.
DE-566 approached the door. He reached up to knock.
"Enter."
The rasp of the voice came before the droid's knuckles had reached the metal.
With a hiss, the doors opened. Sora Bulq was sitting on a cushioned stool, legs crossed and arms on his knees with his back turned to the door. He was silhouetted against the magnificent view the transparisteel window offered of Koru Neimoidia's eastern ocean.
He always got nervous when he approached his commanders, even with good news, especially after a tenure as General Grievous' replacement for his previous commanding droid. "Sir, the outpost on the rift valley near Naantrya has been lost."
He readied himself for a howl of anger, and a hum of plasma, and the feeling of going off-line, but it did not come.
"Thank you 556. You may return to your post."
He could tell when he was dismissed. 556 turned and exited without further ado. Beyond the door, he was positively jazzed. He had survived bringing bad news to a superior.
He skipped down the hallway, coming as close to humming as any battle-droid ever could, or would.
What the exiting droid did not see, was the slow, and what must have been the most evil smile that ever has crossed the countenance of a Weequay spread across Sora Bulq's face.
Everything was going as planned.
CLIFF HANGER BABY! X3
Yes, I know, I hate cliff hangers too, but hey, I liked it, and I won't be able to update at least until next week. School starts tomorrow. Anyway, corny? Maybe, But I thought it kind of worked. I like a bit of character development, and this story packs a TON of it. Anyway, good night, God bless, and please review!