Chapter 13: General Grievous

"Crush them," Grievous shouted.

The Manga guards immediately began to spin their staffs and moved to attack the two lightsaber wielders. Two guards attacked Galen while two attacked Ahsoka. Ahsoka was forced back a bit, but she was feeling more confident now that she had a shoto. With relative ease, she ducked, parried, and blocked each strike that the guards used against her, but she knew that these guards would not let up on their offense; she needed to take the offense. Knowing that she could not use Ataru due to the limited spacing, she began to use Juyo to take the offensive. Although still new to the form, she was excelling fast at it. She relentlessly attack both Manga guards, who continued to keep a relatively strong defense.

Galen, meanwhile, was having his own problems. Although he had some rudimentary training in Jar'Kai, he was not use to it. They only form he used regularly that could be applied with Jar'Kai was Juyo. Almost immediately, he found himself in a rather difficult spot. When having one saber in each hand, he could himself unable to do power strikes and, at best, could only manage mediocre strikes of strength. Frustrated, he was forced to dance rapidly to avoid the Mange guard's electostaffs. This battle was only lengthening, so he decided to even the odds before engaging. With the force, he grabbed one of the guards attacking him and force crushed it into a small compact metal ball. With the odds evened out, Galen began to use Juyo as much as he could in his disadvantage. Calling upon his training, he began to strike with speed. He began to be able to strike with power blows, calling upon the force to enhance his strength. His mind turned to Ahsoka, who was dealing with two other Manga guards. She seemed to fight with relative ease.

His momentary distraction allowed one of the Manga guards to take him off guard and slam the midsection of its staff into Galen. The Jedi hit the ground. Regaining his senses, he evaded the staff as it struck the floor. Determined not to allow these impediments get in the way, he began to call more upon his hate and rage and focus it into a controlled power. Suddenly, he found himself able to use power strikes without using the force. He began to attack with ferocious strength and passion. The Manga began to show difficulty parrying and meeting his lightsaber blades. Within a few seconds, the Manga guards was reduced to a scrap pile on the floor.

Ahsoka was fighting two guards. Both swung their staffs in unison, but she dodged and evaded with relative ease, all the while, trying to maneuver around them and finish them off quickly so that she could help Starkiller. Although she had only seen him for a brief second, she knew that he was relatively new in dual blade wielding, but he was still determined not to let that stop him. She mentally laughed to herself. He had a tendency to commit to things and not give up until he perfected his skill in it. She immediately refocused on the battle. She shrugged off the staffs against her shoto and launched a counterattack. The Manga guard's staff met her green blade and her gold blade. She pushed the droid back and followed up with both blades swinging left, then right. She then leaped overhead, slicing the arm off one of the guards, then decapitating it as she hit the ground. The other turned and resumed an all-out offensive attack. Ahsoka knew that she was relatively weak in terms of defense. Starkiller had not taught her much about Soresu, but she knew he used it because his Soresu practice mimicked Master Kenobi's style in virtually all ways. She fell back to whatever defensive moves she could muster. Suddenly, without warning, the Manga guard was enveloped in lightning. Ahsoka immediately sensed dark energy and deduced that it was Starkiller using force lightning. The droid collapsed to the floor.

Galen's eyes turned from the fallen droid to Ahsoka, who appeared unhurt except for a few burns. He then turned his attention to Grievous.

"Don't bother with them," he growled to a droid. "Keep the ship in orbit."

"Yes, sir."

Galen gave Ahsoka a look of confirmation. She nodded, and she proceeded to cut down a few pilot droids. He did the same. Droids began to run wild as well as the crew. Grievous moved pass the fleeing droids and proceeded to pick up a fallen Manga staff. Both Galen and Ahsoka moved to intercept him before he could try anything.

Grievous turned to the Togruta padawan that stood in front of him. He then turned his head to see the other Jedi at his back. He had no intention of staying to fight them both. He had another idea.

"You lose, Jedi."

With that, he speared one end of the staff into the glass. The entire window shattered and Grievous allowed the vacuum of space to suck him out of the command bridge and into the heat of the battle. Firing a grappling hook into the ship, he began to make his way back into the ship to find an escape pod.

Ahsoka watched as Grievous was sucked into the vacuum of space. She did not want to go there. With that, she grabbed onto one of the control panels. She saw Starkiller grab hold of something with one hand, and use the other to reach for the emergency hatch control. As soon as his hand slammed on the button, a hatch sealed the bridge and both him and Ahsoka fell to the ground with a thud. She got up quickly and helped Starkiller to his feet. She looked at his face, which was inscrutable. That made her uneasy. Starkiller was not one to accept failure. It was all or nothing with him. More than she let on, she wondered what was going through his head. She was a little more than frustrated with the face that Grievous escaped once again. That coward of a general was successful at running away from a battle.

Starkiller didn't face her, instead focusing her attention to another display, which flashed red and sounded an alarm.

"All the escape pods have been launched." Surprisingly, his voice didn't carry a bitter tore or any trace of anger.

Ahsoka turned her attention to yet another display, which showed the condition of the ship. It didn't take a genius to see that the ship was in critical condition and could, at any moment, fall to pieces.

"We need to get off the ship before we shredded to pieces," she said.

"Already on it," Starkiller said quickly. "PROXY, guide the ship to theses coordinates."

A familiar voice sounded through Starkiller's com.

"Steering to coordinates received. Be advised, enemy fighters are heavy within the vicinity. I can drop out of stealth for a few seconds."

"Acknowledged. Starkiller out."

"I'm assuming we're heading to an escape pod hatch," Ahsoka said.

He gave her a quick nod and motioned for her to follow. The way was relatively obstacle-abundant. Pieces of the hall seemed to be coming down everywhere. They both avoided the loose debris and objects that were in their path. Their sprint came to a halt at a hallway filled with vacant escape pod ports.

For a few moments, nothing happened as the shaking began to worsen and more pieces of the corridor began to fall to the floor. Ahsoka looked around anxiously.

"Some time now would be good," she said.

Starkiller remained silent as he stared intently at the hatch. Suddenly, the glass was occupied with the Rogue Shadow. Starkiller immediately used telekinesis to remove the hatch. Without warning, he grabbed Ahsoka and ran into the ship. As soon as they entered the ship, the ship accelerated suddenly. The sudden jolt caused them both to hit the ground. The lights came on. Ahsoka looked down to see that Starkiller's face was not that far from hers. For a moment, neither of them moved, just staring at each other, then Ahsoka quickly got up. Starkiller did the same, obviously trying to ignore what had just happened. He immediately made his way to the cockpit, where PROXY was. Ahsoka immediately sat down at the co-pilot seat and groaned loudly.

"We lost Grievous again."

"Yes and no," Starkiller said softly.

Ahsoka turned to question him. He simply held up a small blinking device in his hand. It took a nanosecond for her to realize what he was doing.

"Master, we're receiving a transmission from Jedi Anakin Skywalker and Obi Wan Kenobi."

"Patch it through."

In a second, both masters appeared. Ahsoka stood by Starkiller's side.

"We just confirmed the destruction of General Grievous's ship. What has become of the general," Obi-Wan inquired.

"Grievous got away," Starkiller said in a momtone voice. "But I planted a tracking device on him during our battle on the bridge. I'm currently tracking him. I will have my ship pursue him in the shadows and locate where he is going."

Both Jedi seemed dissatisfied with this answer.

"I suppose it will have to do," Kenobi said.

"In the meantime, the Jedi Council has called a sessions to decide our next course of action. The Jedi Council wants you to be present."

"Acknowledged. Starkiller out."

Immediately, Ahsoka left. For some reason, she didn't really want to listen any more.

Galen noticed that Ahsoka was not present, and when he reached out with the force to find her, he could feel that she seemed upset about something. More than anything, he wanted to help her, but his mind told him to leave her be…

Any thoughts? Review, like, and favorite, and remember…Peace is a lie…just kidding.