Chapter 60
Crash
"Take the helm, try to find a good place to set down. After you drop me off," Ahsoka said.
"Are you sure that's wise?" The older Jedi took the copilot's yoke and steered the ship gently over a building overlooking the fight. Below them, two Jedi clones were taking on what looked to be the entire police force, and even some local Bpfasshi military.
"Nope," Ahsoka said, pulling down the armored durasteel mask she used to become her bounty hunter alter ego, Riella Masso. "But somebody's got to deal with them. Follow me in as soon as you can find a good parking spot."
She took the ancient echani vibroblade that Sifu-Dyas had given them when they left the cloning facility on Wayland and hooked the sheath to her belt. Ahsoka had wiped it clean of the blood from the first clone of Mace Windu that they'd fought. Normally she'd want to use her own lightsabers when fighting someone who had the Force. But in view of this much of the public, she didn't want anyone figuring out that Riella Masso was anything other than a very well trained bounty hunter.
She still kept her lightsabers on her back though, just in case. The phrik stun stick that she'd used to make her detachable double sided lightsaber was sturdy enough to block even another lightsaber, and if it came down to saving lives verses hiding her identity, well, she was a Jedi. Saving lives was more important.
With a burst of Force enhanced speed, she darted back to the middle of the ship and lowered the ramp. "I'm clear," she shouted into her com as she landed on the rooftop below her. Using the Force, she hit the button to close the ramp.
"I will stay as close as I can until I can find a landing spot," Ylenic said. Suddenly, he punched engines and the ship darted forward. A moment later, Ahsoka saw why.
An entire police hovercar sailed over the building, drunkenly turning slowly in the air as if doing some bizarre interpretation of a Twi'lek dance move. It crashed into the other end of the roof, breaking through into the floor below and sending a shock wave through the building that almost knocked Ahsoka off her feet.
"Don't stay too close," she said to Ylenic over the com.
"Look, it isn't safe here!" Vel shouted above the din. "We need to take off before the fight gets closer to us."
"No," Jorj replied. "we have to see what is going on and report back to Doriana. Keep the Twin warmed up and ready. But we're not running yet."
Vel Tainer knew better than to argue with Jorj Car'das. To an outsider, Jorj was just the navigator of the small freighter. To those in the black market, they knew that the freighter was a smuggling ship, and a good one. It, and its sister ship, the Tralus Twin, had run many blockades to deliver food and supplies during the Clone Wars. To those in the crew of the Talus Twin, Jorj was far more than that. He was the owner, the true captain, and most of all, a spy for Kinman Doriana, who was an adviser to the man who, as of a few weeks before, had just claimed the title of Emperor.
"I'm not getting killed over this!" Vel shouted back as he ran up the ramp of the Talus Twin.
Car'das pulled out what looked like a com unit out of his belt pouch and pressed a few buttons. It beeped back at him. Now the ship definitely wouldn't leave without him, no matter how much Vel might panic.
The Talus Twin was locked down. The engines would stay on, and every ship system would run properly. But without Car'das on board, or without him transmitting the unlocking code, it wouldn't take off.
He hated doing this to his own crew. He hated risking their lives like this.
The Slave I came out of hyperspace above Bpfassh. It rocketed towards the planet at full speed, only shedding that speed by friction with the atmosphere. Even with the shields at full, the hull was starting to glow a dull orange in places.
Boba Fett had watched his father take this ship through several high-speed atmospheric entries before. This wasn't his first time doing it in the pilot's seat either.
This was the first time he did it while hurtling towards what looked like a war zone, and doing it while heading towards the man who murdered his father.
There was no way a little bit of face paint could hide who he was. Mace Windu was there. Mace Windu was still alive. After all of this, he was still alive.
That was going to change. Mace Windu was going to die.
The orange spots on the corners of the Slave I, where the Firespray caught the most wind friction, were starting to fade as Boba leveled the ship out over the city.
It didn't take long to find what he was looking for. The Slave 1 roared over the combat, then circled around for a better view.
Standing over the body of the Fourth, the First screamed in incoherent rage as he pulled one of the armed men across the block using nothing but the raw power of the Force. He swung with his violet saber, slashing the body in two. But the force of the sudden movement had broken the man's neck, and he was already dead before the saber even touched him.
"You killed him!" he screamed. "All of you are guilty! All of you!"
The face that had once belonged to a strong and noble Jedi Master was twisted up in rage. The Force energies that coursed through him were causing red veins to appear in his dark eyes.
They would pay. They would all pay.
The Third landed on the ground beside him, with the mark of a blaster burn on his shoulder. He must have used the Force to absorb most of the energy, because only his clothing was burned. Together they lashed out grabbing another idled hovercar and throwing it across the street.
Ahsoka dropped down from the building and landed with Cathar-like grace on the ground below. Just in time, too, because a ship roared overhead, sending a shockwave that made everyone below stumble. Everyone who didn't have Jedi-honed reflexes, of course.
There was something familiar about that ship, but she didn't have time to deal with that.
First she had to use the Force to try to knock aside another flying car that was headed towards a group of military men who were trying to get cover behind a vendor's stall on the sidewalk.
She barely succeeded. The car tilted and smashed into the sidewalk next to the stall, then skidded into the building behind the men.
A police officer saw her and yelled, "Stay back! It's not safe for you here!"
Riella Masso, bounty hunter, pulled out an echani vibrosword and turned to look at the officer. "It's not safe for Jedi scum with a bounty on their heads," she replied, trying to slip in a bit of the cool, threatening tones that she remembered from Asajj Ventress into her own voice.
She stepped out into the open. The sound of blasters and screams surrounded her, and even with her armored mask cutting down most of the noise, it was still nearly deafening. This was battle, just like she remembered from her time in the Clone Wars.
But unlike her time in the Clone Wars, she wasn't facing up against simple machines.
Jorj watched from behind cover as the young woman in the blue and purple painted mask stepped out into the open. She had a sword in one hand, and nothing in the other.
"What in the Core..." he muttered to himself.
Then she ran. Her feet barely skimming the broken pavement, she ran, then leapt effortlessly, several meters into the air, onto a hovertruck that had been knocked over. One of the Jedi leapt up to meet her there.
Car'das instinctively winced as he saw the clone swing the glowing purple blade at the woman. The woman was clearly a bounty hunter, and not that bright, if she thought that a sword could stop a lightsaber blade.
Surprisingly enough, it did.
He pulled out a pair of macrobinoculars to get a closer look, and hopefully to record the fight. Amazingly, the woman and the Jedi were dueling on top of the truck, the violet blade clashing against the metal one, and not cutting through it.
The Jedi reached out a hand, and Car'das saw the young woman get blasted backwards by an invisible force. Or perhaps, invisible Force.
But she took the blow and flipped backwards with the speed and accuracy of a master gymnast. She landed with her legs splayed wide, keeping a low center of gravity. Then she pounced upwards at her quarry, the blades clashing strongly enough to knock the Jedi off balance.
Boba flew the Slave I down the narrow corridor between buildings. Then he saw it... someone was fighting with Windu. The two were clashing blades on top of an overturned hovertruck, with a popular Bpfasshi sugary drink logo plastered on what had been the side, but now had the footprints of a bounty hunter and a Jedi all over it.
He remembered seeing his father, trapped in the arena, his jetpack broken and useless, firing bolt after bolt of hot plasma at Windu. But the Jedi just advanced. Unstoppable. No negotiations. Just murder in his eyes, and at his hands.
Boba pulled the trigger, and the Slave I's double turbolasers sped away. The focused beams of hot plasma darted towards Windu, with a thousand times as much power as the ones from his father's pistols in that arena. The first set of two shots hit the truck cab, the second nearly severed the cab from the cargo, and the third blew the trailer wide open.
There was no sign of Windu or the bounty hunter as the Slave I came around again for another pass.
The Third evaporated in front of the First's eyes. Why had the world gone so mad? Why had they all turned against him? He was the only one left. The First, and the Last.
He looked down at his pale white hands, a lightsaber in his right, and the Fourth's blood on the left. In the mirror-sheen reflection of a cracked window behind him, he looked every bit the model of a Bpfasshi dark Jedi.
There were no Jedi left at the Jedi Temple. The only surviving Jedi must have been the dark ones.
But in the mirror, he was a dark Jedi.
Something snapped in his mind, and with a practiced focus, he pulled the Force around himself and dashed towards the spaceport, faster than most human eyes could follow.
Author's note: Thanks for the patience! I've been dealing with a lot of IRL stuff this last month or so, and it all culminated in the last few days. I'm back in college and trying to finish my degree, and this semester was going to be my last. But half of the classes that I needed in order to graduate weren't being offered this semester. So I spent most of the last month knocking on doors, calling advisers and teachers, trying to figure out what I could do to find either a substitution, or get into full or locked classes. Classes started this week, and I finally got signed up for most everything I needed by Thursday. So far, I'm signed up for 9 credit hours of class. And I've only managed to actually attend about 30 minutes of class. So it's been a little nutty. Hopefully things will quiet down and take on a more normal schedule for me in the coming weeks.