Yep, this one's short. Eh, I knew it would be. Anakin's PoV, hopefully this will clear up some questions… but, I'm gonna warn you right now, Anakin's PoV is not my forte. Personally, I don't think this chapter is good, but it was necessary. Anakin might seem a bit OOC – that's partially because of how he's changed in the events preceding this story (anything important will be explained in-story, so don't worry about those) and partially because I'm just not that great at writing him and I know it. XD Thanks for reading, please review, but keep in mind that I've already admitted I suck at Anakin and be nice along those lines, okay?
Chapter Three
Not ten seconds after launching the escape pod he'd ordered his Padawan into, Anakin already doubted his decision. Sure, he'd been trying to keep her safe, but this wouldn't be the first time his decision to keep someone 'safe' had blown up in his face. …Bad choice of words, but true. He'd hoped their attackers would be so intent on his ship that they wouldn't notice a launched escape pod, but apparently that was not true; a pang of fear hit him when two of the Tinnies' ships turned their fire on the pod, and in the back of his mind he wondered if it was his fear or Ahsoka's he was feeling.
Though for now he'd have to trust Artoo to keep the pod's systems working, he couldn't have the droids shooting at it. This old hunk of metal might be going down and going down hard, but it still had guns. He momentarily abandoned the comm. panel he'd been arguing with – the power systems were damaged and slowly failing – and turned his attention to getting the attention off Ahsoka's pod and back onto the ship. Or, better yet, take down some of the Tinnies altogether… Ha! One down… seven to go. Small victories. But, the pod was far enough away now… it had taken some fire, but he could only trust – hope – it was still safely intact. But even so, landing alone on some mystery planet… She's not alone, she's with Artoo. He whirled back to the communications panel.
This wasn't the way things were supposed to happen. You didn't come across mystery planets in empty space. There shouldn't be a planet here. Especially not a planet that seemed to auto-spawn these weird, fast little attack vessels he'd never seen before, bent on shooting down his ship in the middle of a 'Why is there a planet here?' back-and-forth between himself and his Padawan that would have been amusing had it had time to be. His attempts at communications with them had either failed or been ignored; he could only assume they were Separatist droids. They were impressive craft, powerful for their size and annoyingly quick and hard to hit. Ahsoka was a good gunner, but by the time they'd realized communications weren't going anywhere and started firing back, they'd already taken some good hits. Anakin knew when a ship was going down. He wanted to get off their coordinates to any nearby allies, but the more bolts that hit the ship, the more sure he was that this was not a good place to be.
Ahsoka hadn't wanted to leave without him. She really had not. That kid could argue the wings off a Toydarian if she wanted to, but Anakin could hold his own, and he had been both frustrated and determined. Still, he had only gotten her into that pod with a direct order, some shoving, a decent amount of shouting, and myriad promises to follow directly after as soon as he got off a comm. link. And even then, he'd felt her frustration and worry, and the strange pang both of them had felt as he'd cast one last look at her before the pod door shut.
Blast this comm. panel! This would be easier with Artoo here. No way was I sending Snips alone, and the wish he hadn't pushed Artoo in there with her passed. But this was not working. He groaned in frustration and angrily slammed his fist onto the panel, cursing in Huttese. Another blast shook the ship, and for a moment he was torn between logic and his own stubborn determination. But he'd promised Ahsoka he'd follow her, and he couldn't well do that if he was in the ship when it blew. He made another frustrated noise in his throat as he turned for the escape pods. Maybe he could get the comm. link working in there.
There was something unspeakably… enraging, about watching one's ship be blown to bits. But at the same time, he'd timed it frighteningly perfectly; they'd likely not see his pod in the blast, and as long as he hit the planet safely, he'd be good. But why in the nine Correlian hells was the flaming comm. link not working? What, did those ships put up a comm. lock? He fought with the darned thing the whole way down.
No pod landing was ever smooth. In Ahsoka's opinion, he knew, no pod landing even counted as a 'landing'. But he supposed as far as crashes go, he'd had some worse ones. At least the pod was still intact when he climbed out of it, and he was only minimally bruised. Well, they weren't shooting at you. He pushed the thought to the back of his mind. Ahsoka was a tough little thing; she'd be fine. Now, where the heck was he?
He looked around, feeling a vague sense of disgust as he found himself reminded a bit of the deserts back on Tatooine. Except instead of endless expanses of sand, it was klicks upon klicks of dry, yellowed grass and hard soil. It was hot and dry, though, not unlike the deserts – though the heat wasn't quite so searing, thankfully. But the open expanse of nothing was still a bit disheartening to look at. He glanced over his shoulder at the pod, debating for a moment. So, something was blocking communications. Well, he'd have to find a comm. station on this planet, then, or someplace to acquire a ship. But his first goal was without question – he had to find his Padawan. It hadn't been too long between her pod launching and his; hers couldn't have landed that far away… relatively.
For a moment he stood still, concentrating, reaching out through the Force to find her. But he could instantly tell that something was wrong. He couldn't sense her. Though that initially sent a jolt of terror through him, he quickly fought to calm himself – he'd know if she was… he'd know, he'd have felt that the second it happened, he was sure of it. No, what was wrong with this was, he couldn't sense much of anything. The Force felt… hazy. Static-y, like the comm. link, blocked. It was a weird feeling, a wrong feeling. He frowned darkly and determinedly tried to push through the haze, but it was difficult. And if he was finding it difficult… well, presumed arrogance aside, that was a big deal.
"Great," he muttered, his voice sounding oddly loud in the silent, wind-swept plains. "Just great." He turned back to the pod, and spent the next ten minutes gathering and sorting supplies into a pack. He'd need rations, and medical supplies in case Ahsoka was hurt when he found her – after a crash like that, there was a decent chance she'd be banged up a bit. Good thing he'd finally done what Obi-wan always tried to get him to – stocked the escape pods with emergency supplies. Alright, he begrudgingly admitted to himself, it does come in handy on the off-chance we have to use the pods.
Supplies gathered, he stood staring back out over the empty plains, mentally cursing in every language he could think of – once he would have been cursing out loud, but Ahsoka seemed to know at least bits and pieces of enough languages to have trained him relegate the more explicit of the words to mental-only. The whole planet better not be plains like this. For that matter, this planet had better be inhabited by a sentient race. He was a great mechanic, but even he couldn't convert an escape pod into a working spaceship, at least not without a good number of extra parts. But he'd worry about that later.
The Force might be hazy, but he was still in-tune with it. He couldn't sense her well enough to pinpoint a location, but he could figure on a general that-way direction. He gave a grunt of irritation and started walking. "Snips better have stayed put," he stated to no one in particular. If she'd gone and wandered off on some strange planet alone save for an R2 droid… he'd stick the kid on the bridge at base for the next three standard months. He sighed heavily. He had the feeling he was in for a long walk.