(Here's part two of the Holocron trilogy And that means that it's time to find out if our heroes get what was stolen from their archives or if they can stop the bounty hunter Cad Bane before capturing Master Bolla Ropal and from opening the Holocron? Sorry for quickly writing and posting this chapter, but I really wanted to catch up on the years I missed due to trying to graduate from college. Unfortunately some chapters in the stories I write are harder to do than others...
Well... for this chapter I wanted to try something different. Unlike the other chapters I wanted to experiment how a mission not really pertaining to the alliance between the Decepticons and Separatists would do against the combined efforts of the Autobots and Republic. With someone as crafty as Bane no one really can predict how things will go, let alone how some Autobots may be in this chapter despite being in an army.
Disclaimer: I do not own anything of Star Wars and/or Transformers of any continuity. They are the properties of their respective owners.
"Talking"
"Communication"
'Thoughts'
Please Read, Review, and Enjoy)
After Cad Bane as stolen the Jedi Holocron as he was instructed to do by the villainous Darth Sidious. As soon as he left the scene, he had left he was able to get off of the Republic Capital and arrived where, with aid of a Separatist fleet, captured Jedi Master Bolla Ropal. Though the Jedi had been adamant that Anakin Skywalker and his Padawan were to be able to take care of it. The Autobot commander wanted to prove themselves helpful to the Jedi since the Jedi have been more welcoming than some of the republic personnel.
The two who were chosen to aid them were the Autobot Communications chief, the musically interested Blaster, the combat specialist, Warpath, who had returned from his time with Master Kota for repairs and refueling when he heard about the theft and wanted to help and… in his words, "stick it to the Con lovers". And the flying Scientist, Jetfire, in case the battle was to be in space. So with just the three of them and six Autobot troopers that went with the Jedi and his apprentice to retake the holocron and hopefully capture the bounty Hunty who stole it.
With the report of a Separatist fleet aiding the bounty hunter they hope that there were any Decepticons onboard.
While Anakin Skywalker stood on the bridge of his assault cruiser, Admiral Yularen approached and said, "General, we're receiving an urgent transmission from the planet."
The two went where a clone at the comms sat as a miniature hologram of a clone trooper on the planet fighting against the droid army.
The clone trooper on sight was fighting as he reported, as he still fought, "General Skywalker, our base has been overrun! There's no possibility of evacuation! They've taken General Ropal and the holocron memory crystal!"
"Do you know where they've taken them?" Anakin asked, looking at the trooper, for any signs of the whereabouts of both the Jedi and the crystal.
"Sorry, sir. We tried to stop them, but they left the outpost!" Soon the hologram showed the trooper being caught by a droid as the hologram ended with the trooper screaming.
"Wait a second. There's too much interference." The trooper at the comms said, trying to establish a reconnection before he sadly reported, "Transmitter's been destroyed at the source, sir."
"We have to find out what ship Master Ropal was on." Anakin said, scanning the battlefield, reaching out with The Force to sense where his fellow Jedi and the memory crystal could be.
Looking to the admiral, Anakin ordered, "Get me in contact with Jetfire. We need to know if he is able to discover anything from his fly-bys."
"Yes General." Yularen said as he worked to contact the Autobot flyer.
Jetfire was flying, taking out as many of the Vulture droids as he can when got close to the Separatist ships. However his alternate form is not as fast so he had to remain in his bipedal form. He then contacted the Jedi cruiser, "Admiral, You might want to see this."
In the Cruiser's bridge. Admiral Yularen located where the Aerialbot's coordinates before seeing what Jetfire saw.
"General, a Separatist command ship is fleeing the battle." Admiral Yularen reported from his station.
Both Jedi and Admiral observed what the trooper reported and saw the lone frigate leaving the battle zone.
Ahsoka turned to her master and asked, "You think they have Master Ropal on board as a prisoner?"
"I'm sure of it." Anakin answered her.
Turning to the admiral, Anakin ordered, "Admiral, intercept them before they can jump to hyperspace. I'll ready the troops for boarding."
"Boarding?" Admiral Yularen asked, looking at the Jedi general in shock, "We have no boarding craft. We were prepared to land on the planet, not aboard another ship. Do not even have the appropriate Autobot who has such a vehicular mode, let alone such a vehicle for the amount of men needed to take the frigate. You can't be serious."
Anakin turned back to Yularen and answered, "I am, Admiral. Thank you for your opinion."
"Now, target their hyperdrive. We don't want them getting away." Anakin ordered as the Troopers in charge of the guns fired on the fleeing frigate as several well aimed shots took out one of the engines.
"You did it!" Jetfire said, as he scanned the area that was hit, "Though the ship's still got power, I have detailed scans you hit the power converters that led to the Hyperdrive. They are stuck here!"
"You certain of this?" Anakin asked from the comms.
"Positive General! Gonna make sure that they're not going to repair the Hyperdrive anytime soon." Jetfire stated as he activated his onboard thrusters to fly up and began to cause more damage to the engines to make sure they remain stuck so that the others could complete the mission.
"I'll round up what soldiers I can and get ready to board the ship." Anakin told the Autobot scientist before ending the line.
Rex waited with his subordinates and three brigades. Carnivore, Execute, and, his personal Torrent.
Blaster, Warpath and the Autobot footsoldiers with them stood in the larger middle section of the hanger where the doors would open.
"I've rounded up about three brigades, sir." Rex reported as soon as both Jedi and Padawan entered the hanger. As they saw the three brigades stood behind the Clone captain.
Warpath squatted down and said, "And you got our help to… Ka-Blam! them into dust. So tell us how we can pound those con lovers down to size."
"Where are we going?" Rex asked looking to the young Jedi.
Anakin then told them his plan, in summarized form, "We're going to board a Separatist frigate, rescue Master Ropal and recover an archive holocron."
"We have no assault craft, sir. Only a couple of fighters, the Autobot flyers, and The Twilight." Rex pointed out, where Anakin narrowed his eyes at Rex.
Rex then said, "Waiting for orders, sir."
Warpath noticed and commented to Blaster, "He's got that look in his eyes, same as Magnus."
"Dang… Dawg knows how to make people follow 'is plans to da letter." Blaster added, though the two quieted when they thought Anakin heard them. Pretending to not see the human general's eyes.
Anakin smiled at that before hearing Ahsoka ask, "And the plan is?"
"Just curious." Ahsoka stated, being on the receiving end of the same look that her master gave her.
Anakin, though knowing that Ahsoka had a point, looked around and saw Warpath with his armor, then noticed the three AT-TE walker tanks. An idea began to form in the Jedi's mind when he heard, "I came down to see if I could be of any help, General Skywalker."
Admiral Yularen approached, his arms behind his back. Anakin then answered, "Actually, you can."
He then pointed at the walkers, "Activate those walkers, Admiral."
There everyone noticed them and all got into the idea the general had in mind, while Admiral Yularen protested, "You are not thinking of using those to transport the clones to that frigate."
"Well, they are pressurized." Ahsoka hummed out, catching onto her master's idea.
"And they're equipped with magnetic feet." Rex added, getting impressed by his general's plan, "Hmm. Good call."
"Master, you're a genius." Ahsoka complimented.
Warpath then added, "You got the spark of a wrecker, Skywalker. I like this plan."
"Those walkers are designed for terrain, not space." Yularen protested more, not thinking that the plan would succeed with the walkers.
Blaster then asked, "But… isn't space another terrain?"
That made Yularen narrow his eyes at the Autobot communications chief for that simple logic.
"Rex, load them up. Let's go, Snips." Anakin said as he and his padawan ran for the AT-AT walker in the middle.
"Execute Battalion, take ATAT 300!" Rex ordered, pointing at the walker left of the middle walker. The troopers from that group hurried over to it.
"Carnivore Battalion, Walker 773!" Rex ordered, pointing at the walker on the right of the middle one.
"Torrent Battalion with me, Let's go!" Rex ordered, and they went to join their general in the walker in the middle of the three.
The two Autobots looked to each other before nodding and got the men with them to get ready. While everyone was prepare Admiral Yularen watched, uncertain as to if the General's inconvenient plan would work or not, even with the aid of the Autobots with them.
Soon with the AT-TEs in place, and the two force users are dressed accordingly for the conditions of space, with helmets to allow them to breathe, the buzzer went off, and the lower hanger doors opened. Then the device that was holding the walker in the air above the opened doors let the walker down, Anakin and Ahsoka holding on to the top of the tank until the tank landed, and magnetized to the ship as it began firing at the droids.
Once they three walkers are out. The Autobots soon joined by jumping ship and went on the hull of the ship, magnetizing as well. They aided the battle on the ship while Warpath made sure to blast the Vulture droids heading their way with his onboard weapons while Blaster used his sound systems to mess up with their commands before the droids fell down, deactivated from Auditory overload.
Blaster then said, "Yeah, you can't handle the Blaster!"
He then began dancing like one of the singing performers he watched while onboard the ark while looking for more musical inspiration, before firing from his onboard blasters at more Vulture droids coming their way.
Once the droids had been taken care of Anakin called, "Artoo!"
R2-D2 came flying in as the astromech droid went and connected into the socket before opening the hatch.
Ahsoka then thought about something, "Wait! What about the Autobots?!"
"Hey, yo, no problem with this, because I got a team that's all that! Alright little dudes, don't be so crud and show some of your moves." Blaster called as two of his shoulder armor opened up as two compartments detached as did his yellow like belt and the red on his back. The belt and red pack became animals that they have never seen before but similar to creatures in their galaxy. The yellow creature resembled a Nexu with blasters on either side of its hide as the red creature was almost similar to the reek that Anakin had fought and controlled on Geonosis, but minus the two horns on either side of its mouth. While shoulder two from his shoulders turned into three meter tall humanoid shaped Cybertronians the proto-skin of both were silver-ish white as one's armor was a slate dark grey as the other was more of a slate blue.
"Blaster…what are…" Anakin asked staring at the four miniature Cybertronians before him and the clones.
"Meet my little dream team!" Blaster rhymed as he began introducing the four miniature Cybertornians with his music playing for extra theme.
He started with the nexu like Cybertronian, "This is my mane train tracker and leader of the pack. My smooth yellow cat, Steeljaw!"
Steeljaw gave a growl as he looked around.
"If you get in the way of this red power, Ramhorn, then you're sure to be on the fall!" The Reek like Cybertronian gave bellowing roar as he was ready to stampede if he doesn't get to run anything through with his horn.
"Rewind may not always be able to do nothing except the talk, but he sure knows how to do the walk!"
"Greetings." Rewind said as he nodded to them politely.
"Now I know you might be seeing double that isn't the case, my boy, Eject, is all, but erased."
"How you doing." Eject asked sounding tough as he got his blaster arm ready for a fight.
Anakin and those with him stared at the miniature Cybertronians as Jetfire came flying down as he observed, "Ah. I see Blaster as deployed his Mini-cons. Good Idea. They can assist with the mission on the inside of the ship. And under Steeljaw's leadership nothing should go wrong."
"Okay." Anakin said, getting the translation from the rap and rhyming as he led them inside. Steeljaw lead the way while Ramhorn brought up the rear behind everyone else as the larger bots waited outside.
Some of the clone were curious as to why an animal/quadrupedal Cybertronian like Steeljaw was in charge of the Autobot mini-con team instead of a bipedal one like either Rewind or Eject. As, to the minds of the clones, and the Jedi, they were humanoid and therefore more evolved than the beast like Autobots.
To say that Cad Bane was in a foul mood, would be an understatement. The only Jedi he had, the keeper of the memory crystal, was dead from his interrogation method and now he had no way to open the holocron and access the information inside that his employer wanted.
"BANE!" A holographic voice called, making the Duros groan from it.
Turning around he saw a battledroid carry a holodisk with Viceroy Nut Gunray on it. So putting on a face he asked, "Viceroy, what do I owe the pleasure of this call?"
"Save your sarcasm. When Darth Sidious asked me to loan you the Federation fleet, he didn't say you were going to war!" The Viceroy exclaimed, fear of what is to come at the loss of the ships that he loaned the Duros bounty hunter, "Bane, you have already lost four of my ships. I hope you can pay for all of this."
Bane pulled out the two items of his job while stating confidently, "One authentic Jedi holocron and the memory crystal I was after. When my benefactor gets this, he will compensate you for your puny fleet."
Before Gunray could say anything, the ship shook, which could only mean one thing, "Sounds like the Jedi want it back."
The droids scrambled to get defenses online while sending vulture droids. Another droid came up to report to the bounty hunter, "The Jedi are overwhelming our vulture droids, with the help of those Autobots."
"Should we send out reinforcements?" the droid asked.
Bane however answered with a stern, "No."
"What are you doing?" The viceroy asked angrily, though he worried of Bane's intention.
The droid, confused asked, "Did you say, "No"?"
Bane answered by narrowing his eyes dangerously at the droid to obey his orders, "Mmm-hmm."
"Roger, roger." The droid said, getting out of there to carry out anything else it could do.
As it left the viceroy shouted, "The Jedi will board the ship and get the holocron back! Transmit the information and close the deal! Immediately!"
"I can't. Only a Jedi can access the device." Bane said, pocketing both pieces into his pockets.
Looking up at the view screen, he saw how there are two Jedi there and knew one thing, "Fortunately, there are two Jedi on their way to help me. One more than we need for our purposes."
Looking at Bane, Gunray asked, "How are you going to do that with those giant droids with them?"
"If you mean the Autobots, don't worry I'll take care of it." Bane assured the Neimoidian, though seemed to find his calling the Autobots 'droids', a bit insulting for a species when one of their own did pretty well in the heist at the temple. Much more than Todo did during the heist.
"You'd better live through this. I want my money, Bane." The viceroy stated.
Bane looked back unafraid of the hologram as he said, "You can count on it."
As soon as the holodisk was deactivated, Bane approached the front of the bridge as he issued the following commands, "Wipe all the frigate's memory banks and destroy every record of our mission."
Turning to another he ordered, "Initiate the self-destruct sequence."
Looking at the commander droid, Bane ordered, "You! Transfer all ship function to my wrist com. I want control of doors, gravity generators, Vulture droid deployments, everything."
"Roger, roger." The commander complied, while the droids did as commanded.
Once everything had been done, and Bane's wrist com had been given control over the entire frigate, he ordered, "The rest of you, stay here and defend the bridge."
He then used the nearby vent shaft to leave the bridge undetected.
"We're defending the bridge alone?" A droid asked it's superior.
"Against the Jedi and Autobots?" The droid at the controls asked, before groaning, "I hate this job."
Soon the republic and Autobot forces burst into the bridge. Well, Ramhorn broke through the door before he skewered two battledroids with a groaning roar. While some of the droids were about to aim at the quadrupedal Autobot. Steeljaw pounced, using his sharp ended tail and his namesake to take those two droids down. He then used his onboard weapons to shoot down any of the armed droids nearby with an accuracy that put the droids to shame. Jumping overhead the two bipedal mini-cons used their teamwork to bash or shoot at any of the droids that took arms. The clones came in about to take care of the rest when they saw that there weren't any left except the droids at the helm controls and the two standing next to them.
One of the troopers whistled at the effectiveness of the mini-cons, another of them commented when he approached the edge of the platform they were on, "And I thought the big bots were impressive."
"Don't shoot!" the commander droid pleaded, then pointed at the droid next to him, "I'm not the commander. He's the commander!"
That made the trooper shoot that droid, causing it to die. This made the commander comment, "Guess I'm the commander now."
Before he could fire, Rewind approached and asked, "Then would you mind surrendering the control of the ship to me? If you do that then I can guarantee your continued existence."
The droid thought about it for a moment as it said, "Well… I'd like to, but the bounty hunter made all of the ship's controls go to this wrist com."
"Really? For what purpose?" Rewind asked, curiously.
Anakin was getting annoyed but Eject placed his hand on both Jedi's arms whispering, "Let Rewind handle this."
"Really? It's a droid… it won't go against its programming." Rex whispered back.
Eject looked at the clone and said, "Hey, after the eons I've known Rewind you'd be surprise how his talking can work."
"I don't know. But who's to say with organic creatures." The droid said before noticing the looks the Jedi and the clones gave it as it said, "Uh… Sorry."
It then realized what it was doing, "Wait a minute! You're the enemy! Why should I be helping you?! Why are you even talking to me!?"
The others got tensed while Rewind stated, "I believe that all life, no matter how they were made, should have the choice as to what they want to do. And even if you are a cybernetic being, you can be more than your programming."
He then placed his hand on the droid's shoulder and asked, "Can you help us with our mission before more lives are lost? Has the holocron been opened yet? Who sent you and your troops to help the bounty hunter?"
The droid stared before processing this before stating, "I can't say for certain, but I know he doesn't have that box you want opened. And after he wiped all the data of our mission I can't bring up anything on who the person that ordered the viceroy to loan us to the bounty hunter."
"So you have no information that can be of help to us?" Anakin asked getting angry.
The droid look back at the human and said, "I didn't say that. But, I can tell you where the Jedi he captured is and use the ship's sensors to find him, if it'll help."
Rex looked and asked, "How do we know you're not gonna try and lead us into a trap?"
Rewind stood forward, "I will vouch for him."
Eject, knowing his friend more than anyone stated, "Me too."
The droid looked between them and said, hanging its head, "No one's ever been this nice to me or stood up for me before…"
It looked up and began to access the terminal as it said, "I'll find him."
Rex had one of the soldiers go with it to make sure it wouldn't betray them
"Artoo, see if you can find Master Ropal while out… friend… works on locating the Bane." Ahsoka told the droid as he rolled over and connected into the ship's systems and found a recent transmission on the data banks that were not deleted, and brought up…
"One authentic Jedi holocron and the memory crystal I was after."
Ahsoka looked at the others, mostly her master and said, in horror, "Oh, no. He has both pieces now."
"Ohh… So that's what the Viceroy meant about his payday." The droid commented from where it was.
Angrily, Anakin turned to the droid and asked, "You knew about this?!"
"But like I said, he doesn't have it opened." The droid stated, "Besides I couldn't see clearly as I was leading my troops to defend the ship as per my programming."
Eject looked and called, "Droid's got a point general. Seems like the only to open those boxes of yours is with that Force thing you're all about. But if it's opened… what does that mean to Master Ropal?"
This made Ahsoka and Anakin worried at the Autobot's words as the Torguta said to the droid, "Artoo, you have to find Master Ropal! Hurry!"
"Rex, send a squad, lock down the hangar bay and destroy all the escape pods." Anakin ordered, before emphasizing, "No one gets off this ship!"
"Yes, sir." Rex saluted as he and his squad were about to when the droid spoke to them.
"I still have control over the escape pods. Let me see…" The droid added before they could hear the console it was on beeping as the pods were jettisoned out into space.
The clone next to the droid commented, "Not bad, for a tinny Klanker."
"Thanks." The droid said before muttering, "I think…"
Rewind the stated, "Correct me if I am wrong, Master Jedi, but do we still need a way off this ship if or when we are able to accomplish this mission?"
"Not unless you are able to combine and become a ship for us." Anakin pointed out.
Only for the droid to say, "There are Separatist shuttles in the hanger bays. I can lead some of your men there if you need one of them."
Rex and Anakin looked between them as Rewind stated, "I can go with them, to make sure nothing happens."
"Okay… Rex have some of the men go with Rewind and… the droid to the hanger to secure the shuttle." Anakin ordered as he and Ahsoka went on ahead to the brig of the ship, which was supplied to them by their new droid ally. While majority of the Torrent Battalion followed it.
Both Eject and Rewind pressed the back of their hands together before Rewind went after them. Ahsoka could sense worry in the blue armored mini-con, "Don't worry I'm sure your friend will be safe."
"It's not him I'm worried about. It's the others I'm worried about." Eject stated, making Ahsoka confused before following after the mini-con Autobot. Eject then explained how sometimes when Rewind talks, it would drive others crazy with his trivia of information.
After they separated, the place shook before Rex asked, "What was that?"
"General Skywalker, one of the engines one that frigate has exploded. I caution you to avoid the aft section." Admiral's Yularen's voice spoke from the wrist coms.
"How much damage is there?" Anakin asked, keeping his expression neutral to not worry his troops.
"I suggest immediate evacuation." Came Yularen's response.
Anakin however, adamantly said, "Not until we get what we came for."
They soon entered the brig of the ship as Steeljaw sniffed the ground for the Rodian's scent before stopping at the door. However, he growled, something was wrong…
Ahsoka noticed and approached to door controls, even after Steeljaw snarled for her to stop, only…
"Master, I found him!" Ahsoka cried out, despairing at the deceased Jedi on the floor of the cell.
The other came to join her as they found Master Ropal's body. Looking back to his Clone commander, Anakin ordered, "Rex, have some men take Master Ropal back to the Resolute."
Rex nodded as several troopers with them carried the Rodian's body the way they came before heading off to the hanger. Steeljaw looked at Ahsoka concerned as he went and pressed his head to Ahsoka's hand. Ahsoka smiled rubbing her hand into the metallic feline's head as she heard Anakin say, "The rest of us will continue to search the ship until we find Bane and take back the holocron and the crystal."
"We might not be able to find the holocron in time, Master." Ahsoka pointed out before adding, "But if it's destroyed with the ship, Nute Gunray won't get it either."
Anakin looked at his padawan and told her, "Maybe, but I'd rather return it to the library personally."
Ahsoka's expression did not show much confidence in Anakin's refusal to listen to her. But Eject asked, "How hard would it be for them to find some other way to read that there Memory crystal? Especially with the Decepti-creeps playing for the other team?"
"Depends but—" Before Anakin get his entire sentence, the ship shook again and the power went out.
Sighing to herself, Ahsoka bent down and told the astro-mech, "Come on, Artoo."
Steeljaw shook his head at Anakin, disappointedly, making the human Jedi raise a brow in surprise at that, not expecting the feral and bestial Cybertronian to understand him. Ramhorn snorted as Anakin could sense aggravation and a violent manner within the horned quadrupedal Autobot. He looked at the bipedal mini-con with him.
Eject shrugged, "Don't look at me. I just looking out for the team. I'm not translating what Steeljaw and Ramhorn said…"
"BAM! If only I can join in the battle in the ship too…" Warpath muttered as he noticed all of the floating bodies of the vulture droids, "My gears are itching to help fight more of those droids…"
"It's not like we can help it given our size…and besides they have most of Blaster's mini-con team with them. They should be fine." Jetfire commented as he stood guard and told he Autobot troopers to remain vigilant even though the cons may have been taken care of they need to keep an eye out for the organic bounty hunter.
While they were waiting one of the Autobot soldiers asked the other, "haven't you noticed how this organic seems to be one step ahead of the clones, even their Jedi?"
"Yea…it's almost like this Cad Bane is an organic Lockdown…" The other shivered.
Blaster turned to them and said, "Best keep on the DL when talking about that LD, especially around Drift. You know how that dawg's got it bad for that chump."
"If Lockdown did to me like how he did to Drift I understand that anger." Another trooper said.
Soon they heard a sound.
"Wait... What's that?" One of the Aerialbot troopers asked, keeping his sensors and weapons on full alert.
"I'm picking up an energy signatures from… behind!" Jetfire cried out as all the Autobtos turned to see the remaining Vulture droids flying at them.
The Autobots fought back while Jetfire and Warpath shouted, "Defensive positions!"
The two look at each other confused, assuming that they were in charge of their team while the other was second. However the sound of the Vulture droids coming at them got the two bots out of the confusion and fought back.
Inside the corridor that lead to the frigate's side guns, Bane stated, "That should keep those bigger bots distracted long enough…"
He then got ready for the next phase of his plan.
As they walked Anakin and Ahsoka activated their lightsabers while Artoo beeped and whirled. Anakin then translated, for the clones, "Artoo says we're close. Stay sharp."
Ahsoka moved her head out of the way of a pipe, Eject was about to warn Rex before…
"Ow!"
That happened… Eject approached and asked, "You all right there Rex?"
"I'm fine." Rex answered, snapping in frustration from the pain. Turning to his men, Rex ordered, "Switch to night vision."
One by one the troopers lowered the electronic binoculars and the vision switched to night vision mode while Rex lowered his lens, which resulted the same.
Both Eject and Ramhorn looked at Steeljaw who nodded and the two mini-cons shined a light from either the sides of their heads forward or a light from the forehead. Steeljaw, however remained dependent on his olfactory sensors as well as his natural ability to see in the dark.
He the stopped, detecting the scent of another non-droid, bring closeby as he then got into a defensive stance and growled.
"What's up with the nexu?" A clone asked, curious by Steeljaw's actions.
Eject answered, "Steeljaw's picked up something with his olfactory sensors."
Sniffing the air more Steeljaw's head followed the direction of the scent before suddenly shining his light on the bounty hunter they were looking for.
"There!" Anakin exclaimed as everyone ran after the bounty hunter.
Soon everyone ran after the Duros before they entered a large room, and entering made Steeljaw growl more as Anakin muttered, "What now…"
Soon the lights turned on and there stood Cad Bane with a big number of droids with him. Eject readied his weapons as he breathed, "Scrap!"
"Welcome, Jedi. We've been expecting you." Bane said before ordering the droids, "Kill them!"
That's when the firefight began between the two groups. The mini-cons having their armor block many of the blaster fire aims at them while two of them got in close, with Ramhorn skewering his opponents and Eject fighting bare handedly, Steeljaw stayed behind and fired at the droids shooting back at him.
Seeing how the miniature Autobots were making things difficult for him, Bane quipped, "Let's make this a bit more interesting."
He made his boots magnetize to the floor, then deactivated their location's internal gravity. The droids also were magnetized to the floor but allowed them to walk and keep firing.
"Lockdown!" Bane shouted as he kept firing at the floating Jedi.
Bane sneered as he kept firing at the Jedi who deflected the bolts away from him.
Rex looked over and called to his troopers, "Magnetics! You were trained for this!"
The troopers closer to a metal surface of somekind began magnetizing themselves to the walls or the ship's cannons as they kept firing. Eject magnetized himself to the ceiling before pushing off with all his might, grabbed a Super battledroid and chucked it at other droids. Ramhorn growled as he'd preferred to use his horn to defeat his enemies but used his onboard missiles to fire at the droids, causing them to explode.
Steeljaw however, had no issue getting in magnetizing himself as he had centuries of practice in chasing his rival, Ravage throughout Cybertron whenever he detected the panther like mini-con or when Blaster and Soundwave duked it out in their usual sound themed battles.
"Artoo, turn the gravity generators back on!" Ahsoka told the droid as she kept deflecting blaster fire away from herself and any troopers behind her.
The battle continued on while Bane decided to make things more even by firing on the troopers who couldn't defend or get out of the way on time.
Eject growled as he pushed off and literally used his body to shield the trooper while Ramhorn, seeing his friend in trouble, charged forward, using a sort of booster to make him move like a rocket at the bounty hunter. Bane barely had time to dodge as his hat didn't completely avoid damage. Growling in annoyance, Bane fired on the Autobot, wanting revenge for the hat he likes.
Rex noticed how the clone trooper with the mini-gun almost hit the cannon shells behind some droids and warned, shouting over the battle, "Hardcase! Check your fire! Hit one of those shells and this fight is over for all of us!"
"Sir, Yes sir!" Hardcase replied before firing back at the droids, checking his fire this time.
Denal used his cable to land on the floor as he fired, Bane began to fire more at the defenseless clones until R2-D2 was able to put the gravity generators on.
Everyone who was not on the floors when gravity was restored, came crashing down to the ground. And just as Anakin was about to take back the holocron.
Bane got back up, took the holocron and ran for the door out of the room they were in. As Anakin gave chase, the aged bounty hunter noticed Hardcase still on the ceiling and fired at him, more specifically at the ground beneath his feet as he came falling down. Anakin had to use the force to stop and gently place the clone trooper on the floor.
Noticing this, Ahsoka declared, "I'll get him, Master!"
However, Anakin used the force to speed after his padawan, calling out, "Ahsoka, wait! It's a trap!"
Steeljaw noticed Bane looking behind him as if expecting this and pressed a button on his wrist coms. Steeljaw, closer to the doors, snarled to Eject, before running after the bounty hunter.
"Got it, Steeljaw!" Eject called back as he went to take care of more droids.
Anakin however called, the doors closing on him, "Ahsoka, wait! We'll take him together!
However it was too late, Anakin didn't get close enough to make it through the door. Fortunately, Steeljaw did. Anakin proceeded to use his lightsaber burn his way through the blast door.
As the clones fought the remaining droids, one of the B1 droids tripped on another's head, slipped and fell forward with a yell, the impact made the droid fire at the shell, making an explosion that made the ceiling collapsed on top of them, Rex and the others ran for cover, Anakin
Ahsoka and Steeljaw ran after Bane before finding him at another blast door. Ahsoka made her presence known as she asked, "You thought you could get away?"
"You're not much of a challenge, youngling." Bane scoffed, before noticing the feline like Cybertronian and said, smirking, "Even with that Autobot there I got you right where I want you."
Ahsoka gave a smirk in response while preparing herself anything that the bounty hunter may try. Bane fired quickly with his blaster, only for Ahsoka to deflect it at the bounty hunter's wrist coms. The effect made the aged Duros shouted in pain before Steeljaw aimed and fired one of his weapons and hit the blaster out of the bounty hunter's hand.
While checking to make sure he still had feeling in his recently shot hands, Bane gave a smirk that showed how the two impressed him, especially the animal looking Autobot with her. Bane then moved in a way that that surprised Steeljaw, nothing thinking someone of the Duros' age could move that quickly.
The two moved out of the way while Ahsoka gave chase, only for Bane to kick the girl's lightsaber out of her hand. Steeljaw growled trying to get a lock on the bounty hunter, but with Ahsoka in the way he couldn't shoot or attack, something that Bane knew so he had to stand his ground and hope for Ahsoka to be able to fight back effectively against the bounty hunter.
Bane drew his other blaster attempting to shoot at the torguta girl at point blank range. However the padawan was able to knock it out of Bane's hand. Then flipped him over onto the floor hard which made him unconscious.
"I'm not impressed." Ahsoka said in a mocking tone, before she would use the force to retrieve her lightsaber.
Steeljaw was about to approach when he snarled, trying to speak the language of the organics, as he tried to warn her, "…Aaahhhssssoooookkaaaa!"
Ahsoka turned to the feline Autobot, surprised, hearing Steeljaw speak Basic. Her surprised was short lived as Bane revealed that he was pretending to be knocked out and electrocuted the padawan into unconsciousness.
Angry, Steeljaw pounced, trying to make the bounty hunter pay for that, but he was electrocuted as well when Bane rolled out of the way and grabbed the feline by the tail. Steeljaw fell as well, twitching a bit.
With his prisoner Bane smirked evilly at his plan thinking, 'Too easy.'
However he heard scraping and saw Steeljaw trying to get up again. Bane went over and stated, "You Transformers never stop impressing me. First Chop Shop's toys and now you and your tenacity."
Steeljaw snarled in response while trying to get up. Bane could see how the feline Autobot wanted to get back up to finish his mission.
He then retrieved his weapons before telling the feline, "I can respect that professionalism you have for your job. But I can't have you follow."
He then hurried off carrying Ahsoka with him before Steeljaw fell unconscious.
Anakin opened his eyes, barely remembering using the force to protect himself when the level they were in came crashing down. He could also hear Rex calling for him, "General Skywalker, can you hear me? Are you all right in there?"
Sitting up, Anakin answered, "Yeah, I'm all right. Get to the hangar where the others are. Find a transport, but wait for us as long as you can."
"We're on it, sir." Rex said as he and his remaining men went to the hanger.
Eject approached, "General! Please look out for Steeljaw."
"Don't worry." Anakin said before following Ahsoka and Bane.
As he ran he looked everywhere, while checking his wrist com, "Ahsoka, do you copy?"
There was no response and with the ship shaking more, he asked, "Admiral, what's going on with the ship?"
Admiral Yularen's voice came from the coms, "There's a power surge heading toward the bridge. If you're there, get out immediately. You must abandon your mission."
"I don't have the holocron memory and I seem to have misplaced my Padawan." Anakin pointed out to the admiral.
"The ship is tearing itself apart!" Admiral exclaimed, pointing out the imminent danger of the ship to the young Jedi.
"Move off to a safe distance, Admiral, and await my signal for evacuation." Anakin said as he kept looking for Ahsoka, and Steeljaw.
Meanwhile on the ship, Admiral Yularen would say, airing his aggravation towards the actions of the Jedi he was assigned to by the Republic command, "Of all the Jedi, why did I have to end up with Skywalker?"
He then used the ship's coms, "Attention All Autobot units, I must warn you of the ship's imminent destruction, please evacuate immediately."
"In a nanoklik! We're busy with the slagging Vulture droids!" Warpath shouted back as Yularen would hear sounds of battle through the coms. If he was not concerned about the Frigate exploding, Yularen would have been insulted by the rude words used by one of the Autobots.
As he passed doorway that was closed he heard a hurt, "Rwor…"
Reaching out with the force and found the feline Autobot laying on the ground injured. Approaching, Anakin asked, "Steeljaw? Can you hear me?"
No response.
"Steeljaw." Anakin said trying to wake the feline up. Only for him to shake the feline and saw the mini-con's optics opening. He looked up and growled stunned. Anakin assured, "Don't worry It's me."
Focusing his optics, Steeljaw could see Anakin's image clearing. Just as he tried to get up, Anakin stopped him, "Don't move, you're damaged…"
Steeljaw snarled a bit before looking at him in a way that reminded the human Jedi of his apprentice and asked, getting the message, "Do you know where Bane took Ahsoka?"
The feline mini-con nodded pointing with his claw in the direction he last saw the Duros. Anakin nodded and began to move before Steeljaw growled, pushing himself up on his legs. Anakin went and said, "No. You've done enough… Let me save my apprentice while you go to the hanger where the others are waiting."
Steeljaw shook his head defiantly as he kept getting up as Anakin was surprised by the mini-con's determination. Seeing this determination Anakin said, "Okay, but please don't do anything that will endanger yourself."
Seeing this as a reasonable request, Steeljaw nodded his head to show he understood what the human said. The two continued on their way to find Ahsoka, Bane, and the two pieces stolen by the bounty hunter. Anakin lead him even as the ship shook.
Ahsoka woke up as she noticed her arms bound by binders. As she tried to force them out but got a nasty surprise as she was electrocuted by the binders. Feeling a presence over her, she saw Cad Bane approaching and mockingly commented, "Oh, I wouldn't do that. Those binders have been specially designed for Jedi."
Bane then took hold of her Silka beaded made Padawan braid and pulled it off, adding, "The more you struggle, the tighter they get."
As he talked about the binders, Ahsoka was not listening as she was angry at what the bounty hunter did with her braid. How he took it off before she was able to be ascend to the rank of Jedi was a clear insult, but Ahsoka had to keep from the aged Duros from knowing he got to her as he asked, grinning smugly, "Impressed now, youngling?"
"Not really." Ahsoka muttered. She then heard the echoes of the explosions reached her nonexisting ears as she added, "Enjoy this while you can, sleemo. This burning boat is about to finish us both off."
Bane hummed in a condescending manner before said, not worried at all by the fact the ship he's on would explode around him, "Believe me, youngling, we have time. The bond between a Jedi teacher and his apprentice is strong."
Ahsoka, knowing she had to stall for time until her master found them, shot back at the Duros, "Which means my Master will be coming for me any minute."
Bane grinned as he put away his new trophy on his belt, then noticed Ahsoka upset about something as precious to her as her braid being held in such a casual manner. Activating his wrist pad controls for the binders, getting the right setting for his needs, commented, "Let's see if we can get him here any faster."
He pressed the button and Ahsoka let out a painful cry as the binders electrocute her, in a higher setting than they were before.
Steeljaw stood in amazement as he saw the humans tear the droids apart with his Force ability. The quadrupedal Autobot then thought, scared, 'If this human was born on Cybertron as a Cybertronian, with his abilities he would have won the war before it went dark…'
Anakin walked menacingly to towards the last three droids closest to the door where their target was waiting with the hostage Ahsoka. Anakin then activated his lightsaber
"You said we'd be safe back here!" The droid on the left shouted to its comrade, sounding scared before running to the intercom.
"Come on, there's three of us and only two of them." The droid at the middle said, trying to rally the remaining droids into attack
The third droid said, hanging its head in defeat, especially after seeing how the human jedi took down the remainder of its battalion, "It won't matter."
"Sir, a Jedi is coming. He looks very unhappy." The droid reported, emphasizing on the last two words, before Steeljaw saw Anakin cut the droids down mercilessly.
Opening the door into the airlock, the two saw Bane standing in the middle of two B-2 super battle droids, while Ahsoka sat behind a ray shield with the airlock behind her.
Anakin then passed through the door as he said, coldly, "You have nowhere left to run, bounty hunter."
"Let me worry about that, Jedi." Bane said back. He turned to face the Jedi while the battle droids turned and aimed their arm blasters at the Jedi before they saw Steeljaw behind him, aiming his own onboard blasters at the droids. Bane then stated, holding his finger over his wrist com, "If I activate this control, the outside airlock will open and she will be sucked into oblivion."
Hearing this made Steeljaw get worried about Ahsoka's safety.
Having to have been through similar or had to do this sort of circumstance before in his long life as a bounty hunter, Bane then asked, challenging the two 'heroes' before him, "Do you think you can kill me and then save her before she's pulled out into space? Before that four legged nexu shoots the droids and then save her while you deal with me?"
"I don't know how Autobots feel about space, considering that are still able to live out there, but it's definitely a horrible way for an organic being to die. Wouldn't you agree Jedi?" Bane taunted, making Steeljaw press his claws onto the floor while glaring at the bounty hunter with a great deal of anger.
Anakin looked to Ahsoka concerned for her safety. He had already failed to keep his mother safe, he won't lose his apprentice…
Steeljaw glanced an optic towards the human male, wondering what he would do. He himself could not let an ally be destroyed in order to complete the mission, that's how Decepticons are and Steeljaw is no Decepticon. Not as long as his Spark burns in his chassis.
"Besides, isn't negotiation the Jedi way?" Bane asked, taunting the Jedi more as the droids walked closer to make the bounty hunter's point more apparent.
Anakin then sighed, deactivating his lightsaber as he asked, "What do you want?"
"This holocron carries information I've been paid to collect." Bane explained pulling out the holocron that he stole from the temple archive.
"I can't unlock it, but you can. The last Jedi who had it wouldn't open it. I hope you don't make the same mistake."
Bane noticed how the two Jedi were looking at each other worried, which made Bane exclaim, putting his finger over the button again, threatening to activate the door control behind him, "We don't have much time! Hurry it up, Jedi, or she dies!"
"No, Master! Don't do it!" Ahsoka shouted, not wanting her master to do condemn the lives of the future Jedi for her sake.
Anakin looked over at Ahsoka and stated, "I can't let you die, Ahsoka."
Steeljaw saw this and remembered how protective Blaster was about the mini-cons partnered with him. Who knew these organics had so many sides to them?
"Master, no!" Ahsoka protested, then shouted to Steeljaw, "Steeljaw stop him! You can't let him do this!"
Steeljaw looked down, knowing that he was violating his mandate to complete the mission, but he could not let a comrade die to strike down a dangerous enemy. It's not what Optimus Prime would do…
"We'll deal with the holocron later." Anakin promised her as he placed his lightsaber on the ground. Steeljaw sat down off to the side while one of the B2's took the Jedi's lightsaber and put it where the padawan's lightsaber was.
"How touching." Bane said, mockingly at the two. Steeljaw glared at the Duros and growled at his comment.
As Rex and his remaining troops ran to the hanger by, they could hear blaster fire as he knew that his men there need help. Pulling out his pistol-like blasters, Rex ordered, "All units make for that shuttle!"
He then walked through and found none of his soldiers harmed, but all the droids, multiple B1s and a pair of dwarf spider droids, dead at their feet while the commander B1 droid that sided with them went up the ramp to get the shuttle ready.
Approaching, Rex asked, "Uhh… what happened here?"
The clone trooper with his men stated to the captain, "You wouldn't believe it, sir."
Eject laughed a bit and said, "Told you I wasn't worried about Rewind."
Rewind turned to his best friend and said, "I was offering them some trivia to help them see the error of not helping us and then they started firing on each other for no reason."
"Told you that talking all the time would drive people crazy." Eject joked as Ramhorn rolled his optics and tried to get in.
"Hold it, Ramhorn." Eject said, grabbing his four legged friend by the tail and said, "You know we need to make sure all the soldiers here get inside before takeoff. Not sure if their armor'll keep them breathing before we make it back to the ship we rode in on."
Ramhorn groaned at Eject, freeing his tail in the process. Eject said, "Not like the vacuum's gonna affect us. Besides you don't want to accidently hurt one of our allies with that horn of yours right?"
Pouting in a way that made him look like he was grumbling, Ramhorn jumped as high as he could before landing on the side of the shuttle, needing help from the two Mini-cons to push him up while the quadrupedal Autobot magnetized himself to outer hull of the ship.
Watching Eject jump up at a more forward section of the shuttle while helping the dark grey "twin" up, Rex was about to approach the shuttle when he heard the admiral speaking into his coms, "Captain, the main reactor is exposed. It will implode at any moment."
"Yes, sir. We're getting the shuttle now, waiting for the general and the commander." Rex reported as to the orders he was given by his general.
However, he was interrupted by the admiral ordering, loudly, "Get out of there!"
"Sir! Yes, sir." Rex replied, ending the coms before looking at one of the soldiers under his command.
"Denal. You and the shiny find the general and help him!" Rex ordered, "This frigate's not going to last. We all have to get out of here!"
"Yes, sir!" Denal said as he and the trooper with him went to find general, commander, and ally.
While outside, the battle for the bigger Autobot looked as though they were about to lose ground when the explosions reached the top of the frigate taking out the vulture droids on the hull while dazing the flying droids before they crashed into the pathway leading into the ship's bridge.
"Yo! This ship's going down faster than Trypticon's freefall on Cybertron!" Blaster pointed out, remembering how Silverbolt's squad took care of Trypticon before the giant Cybertronian could destroy Iacon command and kill Optimus. Taking out the giant's jetpack really did make it look like he was freefalling.
"Ugh… Blaster, Please don't remind me…" Jetfire groaned, remembering how difficult that mission was, especially the brave soldiers they lost. He even hated the part where the giant bestial Decepticon even knocked him out before he would repair any injuries suffered on his comrades.
"Heh-heh. My bad, JF." Blaster apologized, sheepishly, before getting serious, "But seriously, let's make like Hound's holograms and fade out!"
The flyers transformed and carried as many of the ground based Autobots. The only ones that Jetfire and his men could carry were two of the Autotroopers and Warpath. Blaster grabbed the two under his command for the mission and used his sonic abilities to propel himself from the sinking frigate, with a spirited, "WAAAHOOOO!"
As he flew through space.
"Come about. We need to put some distance between us and that frigate." Admiral Yularen ordered, determined to make sure the ship he and the troops were on did not get affected by the explosion of the frigate.
"But sir, what about the Autobots?" A clone asked, approaching the admiral.
Yularen closed his eyes with regret as he said, "I'm afraid we cannot endanger our vessel to save six soldiers."
Another clone, closer to the window of the bridge said, "Ah… sir."
Yularen, however continued, "As an officer of the Republic I must do what I must to ensure the safety of this vessel and crew. No matter the loss."
"Sir."
"I will accept full responsibility for the loss of our allies, especially their officers, but my main concern is to make sure we return to Coruscant without any more loss." Yularen continued, not seeing what more of the troopers on the bridge were seeing.
"Sir!"
Turning, Yularen asked, "What is it trooper?!"
The soldier pointed as Yularen saw something that made his eyes widen. And if it wasn't the Autobots riding on top of the flyers like the boards used in a primitive water sport used on some planets in the Galaxy, then it would be seeing the Communications chief of the Autobots flying through the air with nothing to propel as far as the admiral could see. He then noticed the Autobot heading their!
He then ordered, "Brace for impact!"
Some did as ordered while others were curious if the impact would really damage the ship. There was loud thud sound echoing from the hull through most of the ship, with a dent the size of Blaster's bod width, but other than that, not much damage.
One of the Autotroopers magnetized to the ship and pleaded, scared from the sudden flight, "Please don't do that again…"
Blaster grinned while the others on his team joined them on the Resolute's hull. While looking back at the enemy ship, hoping for their organic allies to make it out of there. Blaster was especially worried about his mini-con team, but didn't want to let the others worry.
Anakin knelt, meditating, on the floor while the holocron floated into the air while it began to open by the cubic corners of the exterior and the glass sections of where the cornors were previously held in place. Revealing the core of the device while the pieces floated around it. Steeljaw never saw anything like it. As he knew this was not a form of magnetic manipulation nor was it anything else that his olfactory sensors could detect. Seeing the holocron glow that way made him remember how Cybertron looked from the first and second moons that orbit the birthplace of all Cybertronians, where majority of the Mini-cons had made their home.
Bane then approaching pulling out the memory crystal as he said, letting it float into the center of the holocron, "Now I will combine this holocron with the memory crystal I acquired from your dead Jedi friend."
Once it was inside, Anakin used the Force to put the holocron back together while the cubic corner placed differently to make it almost look octagon in shape.
"My employers will be most pleased." Bane informed the Jedi as he took hold of the holocron and looked at it. Pleased with how his backup plan had worked to fruition.
Using the distraction that the holocron gave him, Anakin glanced to an angle. Steeljaw turned his optics and saw the lightsabers that Bane had taken and knew the Jedi was about to act.
Anakin then used the Force to pull both lightsabers from the container Bane put them in, towards his awaiting hands as he ignited both of them. Steeljaw then pounced on the closest of the droids as he buried his fangs and claws into the metal body of the droid as the two B2s fired on Anakin who deflected the blaster bolts away from him onto the ground and walls.
Seeing this, Bane retreated with the holocron in hand, even as Anakin bisected a droid by the waist and Steeljaw pulled out the other droid's processor out. Seeing he was about to be overwhelmed, Bane pushed the button, resulting in the airlock opening as the oxygen began to be sent outwards into space.
Anakin used the upper piece of the droid to destroy the controls that power the ray shield with th Force while the quadrupedal feline magnetized his feet and hurried to Ahsoka, grabbing onto her binders with his teeth before turning his body around.
Bane used this chance to activate the rockets on his legs and flew out of there before the door closed behind him.
Steeljaw then, carefully, kept moving his body until Ahsoka was now over him and not anywhere close to being sent into space. Lowering his head Steeljaw opened his mouth and let Ahsoka, involuntarily hold onto the yellow mini-con with her arms around his neck as he used his claws to dig deep into the metal floor to keep them both from being sent into space while his tail blindly whip around to close the airlock. Ahsoka using what she could, held onto the Autobot as best she could, really thankful that Bane put the binders on her now as she doubted that she could have held on as long as she did with Steeljaw's sleek and smooth metal body. However, it was nowhere long enough to reach.
Anakin took this chance to press the button to close the airlock, saving their lives. Once the vacuum effect ceased Steeljaw lowered himself for Ahsoka to climb off him and for Anakin to use her lightsaber to cut through the binders. Once freed and had her lightsaber again, Ahsoka then turned to the mini-con team leader and said, smiling, "Thanks Steeljaw."
Steeljaw softly snorted a bit, to maintain his sense of professionalism.
Glad to see his apprentice safe, Anakin activated his coms, "Rex, I found Ahsoka and Steeljaw, we're heading our way back to you now."
"Yes sir! The ship's standing by." Rex said as the three of them raced to the Hanger as fast as they can. All the while the explosions on the ship getting worse.
After escaping with his prize, Bane made his way to the upper level of the hanger where the catwalk was as his holo-disc beeped. Answering, Bane saw the viceroy's hologram coming into view, "Bane, did the Jedi cooperate with you? With some encouragement.
"I have access to the holocron and all the information the memory crystal contains. I only have to get off this ship." Bane reported as he looked around, knowing that all the escape pods have been jettisoned due to that traitorous B1 droid commander of the ship.
Nute Gunray had a glimmer in his eye as he suggested, "Maybe you should transmit it to me now. Then I can send another ship for you."
Knowing that the viceroy was not going to do as he promised, Bane rejected his offer, "No thanks, Viceroy. I have a plan for my own escape."
He then sneaked along, overviewing the republic clone troopers and three more Autobot mini-cons were waiting for their friends. As he begun to think of a way to sneak onboard.
"Hold it right there!"
Bane turned and saw two Clone troopers before him, one of home had blue marks on his armor.
"You're not going anywhere, bounty hunter." The Clone trooper, Denal said, as he and his brother trained their blasters on the Duros even after the bounty hunter put his hands up.
Looking at their armor, Bane smirked and commented, "Nice armor you have there, Son."
Under his helmet, Denal raised brow by what the bounty hunter meant by that, unaware of his true motive.
As they ran Anakin could sense the feeling of danger growing as they heard more explosions erupting throughout the ship.
Anakin then spoke into his wrist com, "Rex, I hope you found us a ride off this bucket!"
"We've got to leave now. The reactor's gonna blow. We cannot wait!" Rex shouted through the explosions as he spoke through the coms.
Anakin ordered back, "You'll have to. I'm going after that bounty hunter."
"Master, wait! Stop!" Ahsoka shouted, once seeing her master before pointing towards the hanger, "This is the way to the hangar! We must get off the ship now!"
"I can't let Bane get away." Anakin told her, he turned to leave but this time Steeljaw then stopped him with his body blocking the way.
Anakin then ordered, "Steeljaw. Move."
Anakin cannot understand how the Autobot would now stand in his way but did nothing to stop him when Ahsoka's life was in danger. Especially if, the bounty hunter got away with the holocron then many more lives would be endangered from the list.
"Patience, Master!" Ahsoka shouted, trying to get through to her master as she repeated, calmly, "Patience."
Anakin looked down and glanced at both of them before telling the two, "You're right. You're both right."
The three of them then ran to the hanger where Rex and the troopers were waiting for them as the captain shouted, urging them to get in the shuttle, "Come on, come on!"
Seeing his teammates on the hull of the shuttle Steeljaw joined his fellow mini-cons as they held on for their lives.
Anakin and Ahsoka felt something through the Force as they saw Denal fighting Bane, before the clone shot the bounty hunter point blank. The bounty hunter then fell like a rock onto the floor. Rex then shouted, "Hey klanker! Get us up there! One of our men are still there!"
The shuttle than rose up high enough for the wounded clone to climb over the railing of the catwalk and landed on the ramp, holding his arm across his stomach.
"Trooper, did you get the holocron?" Anakin asked helping the trooper onto the transport.
"No, sir." Denal answered, his voice low in pain from confronting the bounty hunter the way he did.
Ahsoka made her way to the ramp as he shouted, over the flames, wanting to make up for how Bane had gotten the holocron to open because of her, "I'll get it, Master!"
"No time." Anakin told her before he ordered, "Rex, get us out of here."
The shuttle's ramp retracted as the organic beings got into the shuttle as the back door closed and the mini-cons held on for dear life as they went through the hanger shields into space.
During the journey over, Ahsoka commented, sadly, "Well, it looks like the holocron was destroyed, but at least the Separatists didn't get it."
Anakin shook his head, sensing something wrong through the Force, "Bane's dead, but I can still feel him."
As he stood there, he tried to locate the source of the disturbance. It shouldn't make sense, he saw Bane die and yet he could still feel the Duros through the Force.
Jetfire looked through space to see any signs of their organic comrades. However, with no republic vessels out there how would they get back?
Blaster was keeping his scanners out for any of the mini-cons he had partnered up with as he felt a ping, "Whoa fellas got a ping off the sonar."
"I think I see something." One of the Autotroopers said pointing towards soemthing flying from the Separatist Frigate.
"It's Separatist Shuttle!" Another Autotrooper exclaimed seeing a better image of the craft.
Warpath looked up and aimed his personal blaster at it, "I got 'em."
Focusing more on the signals he was picking up he then zoomed his optics in and asked, "Is that?"
Warpath almost had them locked on, "Almost..."
Just as he got a lock on the ship, "Got 'em Con lovers. KERBLAM!"
He pulled the trigger to fire when, Blaster pointed the soldier's weapon away as he shouted, "No! It's the others! I saw my boys on holding onto that ship!"
After getting it, Warpath sheepishly said, looking at the others with him, "Whoops... ZOWry there Blaster."
When they landed, the ramp to the shuttle opened and mostly everyone exited from the Sheeva B shuttle. Ahsoka went after her mentor and apologized, "Master, I'm sorry I let that mercenary get the upper hand."
The two were unaware as Denal walked away from them, presumably to reach the medbay.
"It wasn't your fault, Ahsoka. It was mine, start to finish." Anakin assured her as they saw Admiral Yularen walking towards them. And went to speak with the older human. Ahsoka let out a breath of relief when she heard her master did not blame her for how the mission went.
"So, did you manage to recover the holocron or capture the bounty hunter?" Yularen asked, looking inquisitively at the younger Jedi. His eyes narrowed to emphasis as such.
"Um, no and no." Anakin replied, feeling a bit sheepish by how he said all those things and could not do either.
"I see." Yularen said, thinking back to how he was with the Jedi before asking, "So the mission was your usual version of success, then?"
"If by success you mean, "I won," then yes." Anakin answered, 'translating' that to mean how he was able to destroy the ship and prevented the information from being found by the enemy.
Huffing in annoyance, Yularen walked away to give his report to Republic command.
While the three highest rank officers were talking, Eject reported to Blaster about how the mission went while Rewind lead the B1 droid to the brig, to put every one of the republic personnel at ease about a separatist droid on their ship. Ramhorn gave a groan like growl as he was itching to skewer something with his horn again. While Steeljaw jumped down, noticing the injured clone, and Ahsoka trailing behind him.
As he landed on the hanger floor, his olfactory sensors picked up a familiar scent and went into the shuttle as he pushed his way through Rex and the clones, as he placed his snout close to the source of the scent before looking at it and found it to be an organic blood, but it wasn't what it looked as in when he and his team studied the species that made up the backbone of the Republic's army. The color of the blood was green and it's scent did not match human. It smelt more like…
Steeljaw froze as a thought occurred to him, before looking out of the shuttle's door and thought, 'Bane is still alive…'
Meanwhile in his quarters onboard the Titan, Obsidian sat on his desk as he read more of the data of the Jedi thanks to Chop Shop's efforts in spiking the Jedi database for him to read this now. When Count Dooku, through his master, asked if the Decepticon general wanted to aid the bounty hunter on his next mission. He refused as he did not see reason to waste the lives of his men on a mission pertaining to information he has no knowledge of, let alone not wanting to ruin the stratagem that is working, merely for something that the Sith Master wish to experiment with.
So ending his communications It began with how the Jedi Order was established, the non-scientific explanation was something that Obsidian thought was illogical. However, the more he read the more he found the study in their connection to the Force truly something to be weary of and a subject to study.
Obsidian then commented, "Fascinating reading."
That was before he reached a section of the history where the Jedi discovered a biological micro-cellular organism that seems to be linked to the Force energy field. as well as a scientist method of counting how many were in a sample of biological cell in order to identify who has enough to use the abilities the Force grants them if there have not been any signs of it by use of the child. As well as to determine the strength of the connection to the Force by the number for those who were indeed able to use it as the Jedi and Sith use.
"These Jedi have a lot of data on their of biological science and attempts to understand this Force of theirs."
An idea formed in his processor, something to be saved for the long run of this conflict. Obsidian then activated his coms, "Doctor. I have a project I believe to be a worthy challenge for someone of your skill."
"Be zere vhen available Herr General!" A minute voice screeched from the other end of the Coms, as he seems to be operating on an injured soldier due to the screams heard in the background.
He smiled at the thought of what this could mean for the future of the Decepticons in this galaxy at war.
(WOW! That sure was alot. I can't believe I got it done... Who knew it would take that much to make a chapter? Can anyone get some quotes that were added to the chapter? Involving the scenes with the Transformers? As well as that one scene with Cad Bane?
Or what you thought of this chapter? Let me know in a review.
So... The Republic thinks they won even though Anakin still sense Bane through the Force and Steeljaw detected Bane's scent, could that mean that Bane did survive after all? What will that mean for our heroes? Will they finally get the Holocron back from the diabolical bounty hunter Cad Bane? And will Warpath apologize for almost blowing up their friends and comrades?
Find out on the next chapter of Star Wars: The Transformers.)